Aberrant DNA methylation in schizophrenia, a review of clinical studies

Abstract

DNA methylation is one of the major epigenetic mechanisms. We will introduce clinical DNA methylation studies of schizophrenia in this article. Attention to its role of DNA methylation in schizophrenia has recently increased because it has been shown that the environmental factors can influence the DNA methylation status, and the altered DNA methylation can affect gene expressions and behaviors. Like genetic studies, technological advances in DNA methylation enable us to perform genome - wide methylome analyses using a microarray and a next - generation sequencing. These epigenetic approaches will be useful to reveal novel molecular mechanisms of schizophrenia.