Figure 5. Association between HERV-Fc1 5′LTR methylation and transcriptional activity.

Global remethylation in Jurkat cells and comparison of DNA methylation status and HERV-Fc1 mRNA expression. Jurkat cells exhibited demethylation after 5-aza-dC treatment for 72 h. Remethylation occurred over the 10 days of drug free growth. The red start and the dotted line indicate the time point when 5-aza-dC was removed from the culture and cells were subsequently cultured in drug-free medium. RNA and DNA were extracted simultaneously from the same sample of Jurkat cells before the culture, after 72 h treatment with 5-aza-dC, and during the 10 day period of drug-free culture. Comparison of the mRNA expression of HERV-Fc1 gag with its respective DNA methylation shows an inverse relationship between expression levels and % methylation. The error bars represents ±SD.