Epigenetics is a foundational aspect of life – reflecting both how genes are expressed and their interaction with the environment.
Epigenetic studies offer insight into cell function at the most fundamental level.
One study by Breen et al., 2025, investigated the relationship between duration of repeated head impacts and abnormal epigenetics in the frontal cortex of the human brain. [1]
They specifically looked at DNA methylation, which has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The researchers found a total of 461 CpG sites that reached genome-wide significance for their association with duration of contact sports play, with those CpG sites spanning a total of 13 genes.
Abnormalities in these genes have been shown to be involved in synaptic function and neurodevelopment, neuroinflammation and immune response, cell signaling and metabolism, transcriptional regulation and genomic maintenance, and cell structure and trafficking.
They noted their findings demonstrated that even low levels of contact sports exposure in a community-based cohort are associated with long-lasting, coordinated DNA methylation changes detectable decades after exposure and that these molecular changes are driven by mechanical injury resulting from repeated head impacts.
“These findings lay the groundwork for future mechanistic studies to define the role of epigenetic alterations in RHI-associated neurodegeneration and to support the development of molecular biomarkers for early detection and intervention.”
References:
- Stein, T., Breen, K., Aytan, N., Hawkins, S., Nicks, R., Alvarez, V., … & Lin, H. (2025). Duration of contact sports play associated with aberrant DNA methylation in human frontal cortex.