Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 440, Issue 1, 25 July 2008, Pages 49-53
Neuroscience Letters

Regional-specific global cytosine methylation and DNA methyltransferase expression in the adult rat hippocampus

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2008.05.028Get rights and content

Abstract

Recent observations suggest that DNA methylation plays an important role in memory and long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus and is involved in programming the offspring epigenome in response to maternal care. Global DNA methylation is believed to be stable postnatally and to be similar across tissues in the adult mammal. It has also been a long held belief that DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) play a very limited role in postmitotic tissues. Recent data suggests a more dynamic role for DNA methylation in the brain postnatally, therefore we examined the global state of methylation and the expression of the known DNMTs in the different regions of the hippocampus. We observed strikingly different levels of global methylation in the adult rat dentate gyrus (DG) and CA1 region in comparison with the CA2 and CA3 regions. mRNA levels of DNA methyltransferases exhibited similar regional specificity and were correlated with global DNA methylation levels. These regional differences in global methylation and expression of the DNA methylation machinery in the adult brain are consistent with the emerging hypothesis that DNA methylation may play a dynamic physiological role in the adult brain.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Alain Niveleau for providing the anti-5-methylcytosine antibody, and Jacynthe Laliberté for her assistance with the confocal microscopy. SEB and ICGW are supported by fellowships from the CIHR. This study was funded by grants from the NCIC awarded to MS and from the HFSP, CIHR and NICHD awarded to MS and MJM.

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