Reacción a "Reactions: traumatic experiences can be passed on to offspring and reversed with drug in mice"

The study makes the interesting observation that some behaviours associated with a maternal separation paradigm (a form of early-life stress), such as hyperventilation in response to hypercapnia (high blood CO₂ levels) and increased sensitivity to pain, are observed in the "offspring" and "grandchildren" of animals that suffered maternal separation. Unfortunately, the authors do not provide any evidence or explanation of the mechanism that may underlie this transgenerational transmission, so the study raises more questions than it provides answers. 

In the discussion they raise the existence of possible epigenetic mechanisms, but these are not investigated at all, nor do they represent the only possible explanation for the observed phenomenon.