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Editor-in-chief
Maria Stella Graziani

Deputy Director
Martina Zaninotto

Associate Editors
Ferruccio Ceriotti
Davide Giavarina
Bruna Lo Sasso
Giampaolo Merlini
Martina Montagnana
Andrea Mosca
Paola Pezzati
Rossella Tomaiuolo
Matteo Vidali

EIC Assistant
Francesco Busardò

International Advisory Board Khosrow Adeli Canada
Sergio Bernardini Italy
Marcello Ciaccio Italy
Eleftherios Diamandis Canada
Philippe Gillery France
Kjell Grankvist Sweden
Hans Jacobs The Netherlands
Eric Kilpatrick UK
Magdalena Krintus Poland
Giuseppe Lippi Italy
Mario Plebani Italy
Sverre Sandberg Norway
Ana-Maria Simundic Croatia
Tommaso Trenti Italy
Cas Weykamp The Netherlands
Maria Willrich USA
Paul Yip Canada

Publisher
Biomedia srl
Via L. Temolo 4, 20126 Milano

Responsible Editor
Giuseppe Agosta

Editorial Secretary
Chiara Riva
Biomedia srl
Via L. Temolo 4, 20126 Milano
Tel. 0245498282
email: biochimica.clinica@sibioc.it

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ISSN print: 0393 – 0564
ISSN digital: 0392- 7091

BC: Articoli scritti da S. Giardina

Suicidio tra umanesimo e scienza
Suicide between humanism and science
S. Giardina \| M. Scorza \| F. Zarrilli \| G. Castaldo \| R. Tomaiuolo \| G. Guerra \|
<p>Suicide is among the first 10 causes of death in industrialized countries, even if its incidence is declining. Familiarity frequently occurs in suicide and a myriad of polymorphisms in candidate genes has been studied as risk factors. Among these, genes encoding enzymes, transporters or receptors of the serotoninergic and dopaminergic systems have been widely studied with conflicting results. Also the metabolism of cholesterol (and serum cholesterol concentrations) seems to have a role in the pathogenesis of suicide. In the last years, our group contributed to study brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its TrkB receptor genes in the DNA from Wernicke area from a large cohort of suicide subjects and controls. In particular, we excluded that the<br />expression of BDNF and its receptor may be modulated by gene mutations. However, the levels of BDNF gene<br />expression were significantly lower in the brain tissue from suicide subjects. We demonstrated that the altered BDNF expression was due to the enhanced methylation of BDNF promoter. These studies first revealed the association between epigenetics and suicide suggesting a novel model of interaction between environment and genes in the pathogenesis of suicide.</p>
Biochimica Clinica ; 38(2) 121-128 Opinioni - Opinions