CHILD BRAIN TRAUMA LEAVES GENETIC TRACE

Methylation patterns in a key gene could help clinicians predict long-term cognitive or behavioural problems

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A newly discovered biological signal in the blood could help health care teams and researchers better understand how children respond to brain injuries at the cellular level, according to a research published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.

In the future, this information could help clinicians identify children who need more tailored followup care after a traumatic brain injury.

Basics of epigenetics

As part of their work as a nurse scientist and neuropsychologist studying traumatic brain injury, Lacey W Heinsberg and Amery Treble-Barna from the University of Pittsburgh, wanted to look for biological markers inside cells that might help explain why some children recover smoothly after brain injury while others struggle. To do this, they focused on DNA, the instruction manual of cells. DNA is organised into regions called genes, each of which codes for proteins that carry out different functions like repairing tissues.