Global hypomethylation of peripheral leukocyte DNA in male patients with schizophrenia: A potential link between epigenetics and schizophrenia

Genetic and epigenetic factors can potentially alter susceptibility to psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. In order to explore the effect of epigenetics on the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, we examined the global methylation level of leukocyte DNA from 210 patients with schizophrenia (124 males and 86 females) and 237 healthy subjects (108 males and 129 females). Methylated deoxycytidine (mC) content in peripheral leukocyte DNA was measured by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). We confirmed in the healthy subjects our previous finding that there are sex-dependent differences in mC content (males > females; beta = 0.319, p < 0.001), in addition to the effect of age (beta = −0.141, p = 0.022). We therefore used multiple regression to analyze the data from all subjects by sex, with age as a co-variant. In males, a tendency was observed toward lower mC content in patients than in controls (beta = −0.115, p = 0.075), with a significant effect of age (beta = −0.212, p < 0.001). This difference was more prominent in younger individuals. In females, no effect of age or disease status on mC content was observed. These results established that there is significant sex-dependent difference in the mC content of human peripheral leukocyte DNA, and raise the possibility that alterations in DNA methylation state are present in patients with schizophrenia.