Study reveals gene expression changes with meditation

A place to discuss casual topics amongst spiritual friends.
Post Reply
User avatar
Kusala
Posts: 1148
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2011 11:02 am

Study reveals gene expression changes with meditation

Post by Kusala »

"He, the Blessed One, is indeed the Noble Lord, the Perfectly Enlightened One;
He is impeccable in conduct and understanding, the Serene One, the Knower of the Worlds;
He trains perfectly those who wish to be trained; he is Teacher of gods and men; he is Awake and Holy. "

--------------------------------------------
"The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One,
Apparent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation,
Leading to liberation, to be experienced individually by the wise. "
Sylvester
Posts: 2204
Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:57 am

Re: Study reveals gene expression changes with meditation

Post by Sylvester »

From the original article in Psychoneuroendocrinology (Feb 2014) -
Rapid changes in histone deacetylases and inflammatory gene expression in expert meditators
February 2014
Perla Kaliman | María Jesús Álvarez-López | Marta Cosín-Tomás | Melissa A. Rosenkranz | Antoine Lutz | Richard J. Davidson

Summary: BackgroundA growing body of research shows that mindfulness meditation can alter neural, behavioral and biochemical processes. However, the mechanisms responsible for such clinically relevant effects remain elusive.MethodsHere we explored the impact of a day of intensive practice of mindfulness meditation in experienced subjects (n=19) on the expression of circadian, chromatin modulatory and inflammatory genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). In parallel, we analyzed a control group of subjects with no meditation experience who engaged in leisure activities in the same environment (n=21). PBMC from all participants were obtained before (t1) and after (t2) the intervention (t2−t1=8h) and gene expression was analyzed using custom pathway focused quantitative-real time PCR assays. Both groups were also presented with the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST).ResultsCore clock gene expression at baseline (t1) was similar between groups and their rhythmicity was not influenced in meditators by the intensive day of practice. Similarly, we found that all the epigenetic regulatory enzymes and inflammatory genes analyzed exhibited similar basal expression levels in the two groups. In contrast, after the brief intervention we detected reduced expression of histone deacetylase genes (HDAC 2, 3 and 9), alterations in global modification of histones (H4ac; H3K4me3) and decreased expression of pro-inflammatory genes (RIPK2 and COX2) in meditators compared with controls. We found that the expression of RIPK2 and HDAC2 genes was associated with a faster cortisol recovery to the TSST in both groups.ConclusionsThe regulation of HDACs and inflammatory pathways may represent some of the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic potential of mindfulness-based interventions. Our findings set the foundation for future studies to further assess meditation strategies for the treatment of chronic inflammatory conditions.
After more than 2 decades' of science on the negative effects of allostatic load on psychological measures, it's finally occurred to someone to look at the bright side...
Post Reply