Epigenetic Factors in Schizophrenia: Mechanisms and Experimental Approaches

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder that is still poorly understood despite decades of study. Many factors have been found to contribute to the pathogenesis, including neurodevelopmental disturbance, genetic risk, and environmental insult, but no single root cause has emerged. While evidence from twin studies suggests a strong heritable component, few individual loci have been identified in genomewide screens, suggesting a role for epigenetic effects. Rather, large numbers of weakly acting loci may cumulatively increase disease risk, including several mapping to epigenetic pathways. In this review, we discuss mechanisms of epigenetic regulation and evidence for an epigenetic contribution to disease phenotype. We further describe the range of experimental tools currently available to study epigenetic effects associated with the disease.