Figure 6.
Epigenetic modifications in alcoholic cortex. A, DNA hypomethylation is associated with higher expression of LTR retrotransposons in alcoholics. Top, Schematic diagram of three families of LTR (MLT2A1, THE1B, and LTR8). Illumina probes shown below as black bars can detect expression of these classes of LTRs and were upregulated in alcoholic brain (fold change range from 20 to 48%; p value range from 0.007 to 0.03). Arrows show locations of RT-PCR primers used for DNA methylation assays. DNA methylation shown as fold change compared with control group was measured using a combination of DNA digestion with a methylation-sensitive enzyme and qRT-PCR. B, H3K4me3 shown as fold change compared with control group is increased in alcoholics. Left panel, Global methylation of H3K4 measured using a combination of ChIP and qRT-PCR. Three right panels, H3K4me3 levels at the promoter of three hub genes from the ctx7 GC-rich module (gene symbols are italicized). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01, as determined by a t test.