In the cerebral cortex of female and male mice, amyloid precursor protein (APP) promoter methylation is higher in females and differentially regulated by sex steroids.

The over-expression of amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene in certain areas of the brain indicates abnormalities in gene regulation as an important factor for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We have reported recently that APP mRNA expression is lower in female as compared to male and is regulated by sex steroids. As methylation of promoter is crucial for such regulation, we have used isoschizomeric restriction enzymes MspI and HpaII to analyze the pattern of APP promoter methylation in the cerebral cortex of intact, gonadectomized, testosterone- and estradiol-treated adult and old mice of both sexes. Southern blots of DNA digested with HindIII/MspI or HindIII/HpaII from different groups of mice were probed with a 1.27-kb DIG-11-dUTP labeled APP promoter fragment. The results revealed four distinct bands of 315 bp, 596 bp, 911 bp, and 2.6 kb by MspI, a single band of 2.6 kb by HpaII in all groups and an additional 2.9 kb in intact and estradiol treated old male and testosterone-treated adult female mice. The intensity of 2.6-kb band was relatively lower in intact female as compared to male and varied with different treatments in both ages, indicating the modulation of methylation. Thus, these findings showed that APP promoter methylation is higher in female and differentially regulated by sex steroids in the mice cerebral cortex, suggesting a strong correlation between promoter methylation and transcriptional silencing of APP.