DNA methyltransferase 1 regulates reelin mRNA expression in mouse primary cortical cultures.

The polygenic nature of complex psychiatric disorders suggests a common pathway that may be involved in the down-regulation of multiple genes through an epigenetic mechanism. To investigate the role of methylation in down-regulating the expression of mRNAs that may be associated with the schizophrenia phenotype, we have adopted a cell-culture model amenable to this line of investigation. We have administered methionine (2 mM) to primary cultures of cortical neurons prepared from embryonic day 16 mice and show that this treatment down-regulated reelin and glutamic acid decarboxylase 67 (GAD67) mRNA expression but not that corresponding to neuron-specific enolase mRNA.