Hypomethylation of MAOA's first exon region in depression: a replication study

Philippe A Melas; Yvonne Forsell

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2015.01.003

Hypomethylation of MAOA's first exon region in depression: a replication study

Psychiatry Res. 2015 Mar 30;226(1):389-91. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2015.01.003. Epub 2015 Jan 13.

Authors

Philippe A Melas¹, Yvonne Forsell²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, CMM L8:00, Karolinska University Hospital, 17176 Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Center for Molecular Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: Philippe.Melas@ki.se.
² Department of Public Health Sciences, Public Health Epidemiology Unit, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

PMID: 25623016
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2015.01.003

Abstract

We recently showed that depression in females is associated with hypomethylation in the first exon region of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene. Here we report on a small-scale (n=44) replication study of MAOA methylation which (a) confirms that female subjects with a history of depression are hypomethylated compared to controls and (b) shows that females are hypermethylated in the same region compared to males.

Keywords: DNA methylation; Epigenetics; Monoamine oxidase A.

MeSH terms

Brain / metabolism
Case-Control Studies
DNA Methylation / genetics*
Depression / genetics*
Depression / psychology
Depressive Disorder / genetics
Epigenesis, Genetic / genetics*
Exons
Female
Genetic Association Studies
Humans
Male
Monoamine Oxidase / genetics*
Promoter Regions, Genetic / genetics
Regression Analysis
Sex Characteristics

Substances

Monoamine Oxidase
monoamine oxidase A, human