Study On Methylated DNA Sequencing In Depression Patients With Childhood Trauma

Objective:Using genome-wide DNA methylation sequencing technology, we preliminary investigated aberrant DNA methylation changes in depression patients with or without childhood trauma to explore the role of DNA methylation in the pathogenesis of depression.Methods:Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood of depression cases (n=6) with or without childhood trauma and adult healthy controls (n=6) with and without childhood trauma normal, every group contains3individuals. DNA methylation was quantified by MeDIP-seq (Methylated DNA Immunoprecipitation sequencing).Results:Enough sequencing deep and high-resolution genome-wide DNA methylation spectrum of peripheral blood have been acquired by using MeDIP-seq sequencing technology for this phase. The original data of the sequencing results is as large as60Gb, and it has increased to80Gb after comparison between groups, GO (gene ontology) and pathway analysis. For cases with childhood trauma vs adult healthy control with childhood trauma,11,623genes were hypomethylated and the number of hypermethylated gene was12,772. There were12,838hypomethylated genes for depression with childhood trauma vs without childhood trauma, and12,709genes were hypermethylated. For adult healthy controls with childhood trauma vs without childhood trauma,12,228genes were hypomethylated, and12,664genes were hypermethylated. For depression without childhood trauma vs adult healthy controls without childhood trauma, the hypomethylated gene number was12,039and the hypermethylated gene number was13,661.Significant abnormal DNA methylation genes from GO analysis were as follows:(1) the biological processes including biological regulation, cellular process, metabolic process, regulation of biological process, signaling and signaling process;(2) cellular component changes mainly including cell part and organelle;(3) molecular function mainly including binding and catalytic activity and so on.Conclusion:Aberrant DNA methylation modifications were found in both childhood trauma and depression, suggesting an important role of DNA methylation in childhood trauma and depression.