title: Comprehensive DNA methylation analysis of peripheral blood cells derived from patients with first-episode schizophrenia.
abstract: Epidemiological studies have revealed that schizophrenia is highly heritable. However, genetic studies have not fully elucidated its etiology. Accumulating evidence suggests that epigenetic alterations may provide an additional explanation of its pathophysiology. We investigated the methylation profiles of DNA in peripheral blood cells from 18 patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FESZ) and from 15 normal controls. Schizophrenia patients were confined to those at the stage of first-episode psychosis. We analyzed the DNA methylation status of 27,578 CpG sites by means of the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation27 BeadChip array. Differentially methylated CpG sites, which were particularly abundant within CpG islands, were enriched in genes related to the nuclear lumen, to transcription factor binding, and to nucleotide binding. We also observed differential methylation of the promoters of HTR1E and COMTD1, which are functionally related to genes found to be differentially methylated in schizophrenia patients in previous studies. Our results indicate the site-specific epigenetic alterations in patients with FESZ.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nishioka
authors.forename: Miki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bundo
authors.forename: Shinsuke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Koike
authors.forename: Ryu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Takizawa
authors.forename: Chihiro
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kakiuchi
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Araki
authors.forename: Kiyoto
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kasai
authors.forename: Kazuya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Iwamoto
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D018899:CpG Islands; D019175:DNA Methylation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics*; D055815:Young Adult