Fig. 2: Reduced MECP2 expression is linked with the increase in anxiety/depression symptoms associated with exposure to childhood adversities in healthy women.

Expression of methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2) interacts with gender in associating with the severity of childhood adversities. This, in turn, mediates an indirect relationship with depressed mood and trait anxiety. Statistical significance was calculated by the means of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with maximum likelihood estimation and Bias-Corrected Bootstrapping method. [Symbols: → directed arcs (p < 0.05); ↔ correlations (p < 0.05); black numbers—standardized coefficients; black underlined numbers—explained variance (R2)].