Immunocellular expression of energy metabolism relevant genes in individuals exposed to childhood maltreatment

Childhood maltreatment (CM) has been linked to serious psychological and physiological conditions as well as alterations in multiple biological systems, including mitochondrial respiration and density. In this thesis, relative gene expression of factors involved in energy metabolism as well as DNA damage repair was determined by reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and correlated with maltreatment load and mitochondrial parameters. Pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1 (PDK1) relative expression was significantly lower in the CM+ group compared to CM- group, but no direct correlation was found. Glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1), lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA), carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT1), poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase 1(PARP1) and x-ray cross-complementing protein 1 (XRCC1) showed no other interactions with CM. Some mitochondrial parameters correlated weakly but significantly with the relative expression of GLUT1 , LDHA, and PDK1, but not with CPT1, PARP1 or XRCC1 relative expression. This suggests, that CM can affect expression levels of metabolism relevant genes in postpartum women. Further, altered mitochondrial respiration coincides with changed expression of energy metabolism relevant genes. These findings pose a starting point for new evaluations, where some validations and extensions of the study as well as new metabolic targets could improve our understanding of the interactions of CM with cellular energy metabolism.