Low estrogen levels may make women more susceptible to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). (2017)
From the article:
The scientists examined blood samples from 278 women from the Grady Trauma Project, a study of low-income Atlanta residents with high levels of exposure to violence and abuse. They analyzed maps of DNA methylation, a modification of DNA that is usually a sign of genes that are turned off.
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[…]
“We knew that estrogen affects the activity of many genes throughout the genome,” […] “But if you look at the estrogen-modulated sites that are also associated with PTSD, just one pops out.”
That site is located in a gene called HDAC4, known to be critical for learning and memory in mice. Genetic variation in HDAC4 among the women was linked to a lower level of HDAC4 gene activity and differences in their ability to respond to and recover from fear, and also differences in “resting state” brain imaging. Women with the same variation also showed stronger connections in activation between the amygdala and the cingulate cortex, two regions of the brain involved in fear learning.
On top of that, experiments with female mice showed that the HDAC4 gene was activated in the amygdala while the mice were undergoing fear learning, but only when estrogen levels in the mice were low.