Germline epigenetic inheritance: Challenges and opportunities for linking human paternal experience with offspring biology and health.

Recently, novel experimental approaches and molecular techniques have demonstrated that a male's experiences can be transmitted through his germline via epigenetic processes. These findings suggest that paternal exposures influence phenotypic variation in unexposed progeny-a proposal that runs counter to canonical ideas about inheritance developed during the 20th century. Nevertheless, support for paternal germline epigenetic inheritance (GEI) in nonhuman mammals continues to grow and the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are becoming clearer.

Toward Credible Patient-centered Meta-analysis.

Meta-analysis is widely used to combine the findings of multiple disparate studies of health risks or treatment response. Meta-analysis often uses a random-effects model to express heterogeneity across studies. The model interprets a weighted average of study-specific estimates as an estimate of a mean parameter across a hypothetical population of studies.

Variation in levels of AMH among Maya and non-Maya women in Campeche, Mexico.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels among women of Maya and non-Maya ancestry in the city of Campeche, Mexico. Levels of AMH can potentially predict age at menopause. Previous studies have indicated an early mean age at menopause among the Maya.

Lifetime socioeconomic status and early life microbial environments predict adult blood telomere length in the Philippines.

Objectives: Psychosocial stress is postulated to hasten senescence in part by accelerating the shortening of telomere length (TL). One pathway through which this may happen is via increasing inflammation and innate immune system activation-a pathway which recent studies suggest acts more strongly for those who grew up in low microbial environments. Thus, we hypothesized that: (1) Psychosocial stress will be inversely associated with TL, (2) early life microbial environments will predict TL, and (3) microbial environments will moderate the association between psychosocial stress and TL.

Perinatal Depression Among HIV-Infected Women in KwaZulu-Natal South Africa: Prenatal Depression Predicts Lower Rates of Exclusive Breastfeeding.

Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) provides infants with optimal nutrition, and together with appropriate antiretroviral therapy has also been shown to decrease mother-to-child transmission of HIV from 45 to less than 1 %. However, rates of EBF are particularly low in South Africa, where rates of HIV are some of the highest in the world. Although perinatal depression has been identified as a potential barrier to EBF, little is known about its impact on EBF among HIV-infected women.

The Biological Residue of Childhood Poverty.

Children raised in poverty are prone to physical health problems late in life. To understand these findings and address the scientific challenge they represent, we must formulate integrative conceptual frameworks at the crossroads of behavioral and biomedical science, with a strong developmental emphasis. In this article, we outline such a framework and discuss research bearing on its validity.