Table 1.
Summary of sex-specific epigenetic regulation associated with brain development or mental disorders
| Rodents | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gene name | Author | Year | Major finding | ||
| Early postnatal period | Juvenile period | Adulthood | |||
| Esr1 | Schwarz | 2010 | POA: Higher DNAm at two promoter CpG sites in females vs. males (PN1). | POA: No sex-specific DNAm differences (PN20). | POA: Higher DNAm in females vs. males at an alternate promoter CpG site (PN60). |
| MBH: Higher DNAm at two promoter CpG sites in females vs. males (PN1). | MBH: No sex-specific DNAm differences (PN20). | MBH: No sex-specific DNAm differences (PN60). | |||
| Kurian | 2010 | POA: NA | POA: Higher DNAm at two promoter CpG sites in males vs. females (PN8). | POA: NA | |
| Esr2 | Schwarz | 2010 | POA: No sex-specific DNAm differences (PN1). | POA: No sex-specific DNAm differences (PN20). | POA: Higher DNAm of one promoter CpG site in males vs. females (PN60). |
| MBH: No sex-specific DNAm differences (PN1). | MBH: Higher DNAm at one promoter CpG site in males vs. females (PN20). | MBH: Higher DNAm at two alternate promoter CpG sites in females vs. males (PN60). | |||
| Dnmt3a | Kolodkin | 2011 | A: Higher gene and protein expression in females vs. males (PN1). | A: No sex-specific expression differences (PN10). | A: NA |
| POA & MBH: No sex-specific expression differences (PN1). | POA & MBH: No sex-specific expression differences (PN10). | POA & MBH: NA | |||
| Mecp2 | Kurian | 2007 | A & VMH: Higher gene and protein expression in females vs. males (PN1). | A & VMH: No sex-specific expression differences (PN10). | A & VMH: NA |
| POA: No sex-specific expression differences (PN1). | POA: No sex-specific expression differences (PN10). | POA: NA | |||
| Crh | Sterrenburg | 2011 | PVN: NA | PVN: NA | PVN: Higher total DNAm in stressed adult females vs. female controls; no corresponding effect in males. |
| ST: NA | ST: NA | ST: Lower total DNAm in stressed vs. nonstressed males; no corresponding effect in females. Sex-specific DNAm changes in response to stress at 4 CpG sites. | |||
| CeA: NA | CeA: NA | CeA: Lower total DNAm in stressed females vs. stressed males. Sex-specific DNAm changes in response to stress at 5 CpG sites. | |||
| Humans | |||||
|
WNT1 NR4A2 LMX1B LHX5 FOSB |
Mill | 2008 | FC: Higher DNAm of WNT1, NR4A2, and LHX5 and lower DNAm of FOSB and LMX1B in females affected by major psychosis vs. female controls. Similar patterns were not seen in males affected by major psychosis vs. male controls. | ||
| SLC6A4 | Beach | 2010 | LB: Elevated DNAm across promoter region in abused males. Elevated DNAm at specific CpG sites in abused females, but not males. | ||
| Philibert | 2008 | LB: Higher DNAm and lower mRNA expression in females vs. males. | |||
| Global Methylation | Essex | 2011 | BC: Altered DNAm in adolescence associated with paternal stress during preschool years in girls, but not boys. | ||
Abbreviations: amygdala (A); buccal cell (BC); central amygdala (CeA); frontal cortex (FC); lymphoblast cell lines (LB); medial basal hypothalamus (MBH); postnatal day (PN); pre-optic area of the hypothalamus (POA); paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN); bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST); ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH).