Effects of psychological stress in histone acetylation (537.2)

Recently, epigenetic factors, including histone modifications, and environmental factors have shown to play an active role in endometriosis. We have recently shown that the levels of histone de-acetylates (HDACs) are higher and that histone acetylation marks are decreased in endometriosis lesions. Also, stress contribute to the development of higher number of lesions and inflammatory parameters are exacerbated. Psychological stress has shown to cause changes in the epigenome. We sought to test the hypothesis that in endometriotic tissue from rats exposed to stress, histone acetylation is modulated, which would impact gene expression and lead to higher severity of symptoms. This randomized controlled study consists of two groups of rats, both with surgically induced endometriosis: the experimental group, which was exposed to a 10-day swim stress protocol and a control group, which was not exposed to stress. On day 60, all rats were sacrificed and examined for the presence of endometriotic vesicles, which w...