Testosterone Depletion Induces Demethylation of Murine Reelin Promoter CpG Dinucleotides: A Preliminary Study.

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a debilitating mental disorder characterized by psychotic events, abnormal social behavior, false beliefs, and auditory hallucinations. Hypermethylation of the promoter region of reelin (RELN), a gene involved in regulation of neuronal positioning during telencephalic development, is strongly associated with low protein expression in several cortical structures and promoter hypermethylation in brain from postmortem SZ subjects. Recent experimental data suggests that testosterone is able to promote RELN demethylation, although no direct evidence of hormonal influence on reelin promoter methylation was obtained.