This study has several implications. Taken together the data is consistent with the hypothesis that cytokines are involved in chronic physical aggression, hence that a peripheral immune component may play a key role in regulating these behavioral states. The results suggest that in addition to differential methylation of critical regions within the cytokine gene loci, differential DNA methylation states of transcription factors that regulate these cytokine genes could be one of the mechanism that explain the decrease in plasma cytokines expression observed in the CPA group.
