Cell-type-specific DNA methylation dynamics in the prenatal and postnatal human cortex

There is increasing recognition about the importance of epigenetic dysregulation in neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia, although the cell-type specific changes in gene regulation across critical periods of brain development have not been fully elucidated. In this study we profiled DNA methylation of purified populations of neuronal (SATB2+) and non-neuronal (SATB2-) cell-types in 47 human fetal and child donors (8 post-conceptual weeks to 8 years old). Post-mortem pre-frontal cortex tissue was collected for 47 individuals: 38 fetal (8 - 28 post-conceptual weeks) and 9 child (0 - 8 years). Using a FANS protocol developed by our group (Davies et al. 2023), individual nuclei fractions (SATB2+, SATB2-) were isolated and DNA methylation profiled.