"Child abuse leaves molecular 'scars' in DNA of victim's sperm, new study suggests"
A Harvard study consisting of thirty-four men, twenty-two of which had suffered abuse as children, found a significant difference in the amount of methylation present in the DNA of the abused men versus in the non-abused. Twelve locations of DNA were identified as being consistently affected by methylation in the men who had experienced abuse as children. While the newly discovered information proves how trauma has a long term impact on the abused individual, it also suggests that future generations can also be affected, due to the presence of methylation in sperm cells. The impact is still relatively unknown, but studies conducted with mice have shown that methylation in sperm cells has proven to have negative health impacts in offspring. While there hasn't been enough research done, it's possible that methylation markers could be used in the future in a legal setting as a tool to determine the approximate age of the person who has left DNA behind at a crime scene. The correlations between methylation and child abuse could also one day allow scientists to calculate the probability that someone has experienced child abuse. This study has provided a lot of information to potentially progress what we know about DNA methylation, but Dr. Andrea Roberts of Harvard says that study still remains to be replicated by others.
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