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, yet little is known about patterns of gene regulation in the later stages of fetal development and the first decade of life. In this study we profiled changes in DNA methylation, an epigenetic modification to cytosine involved in mediating the developmental regulation of gene expression and function, across human brain development in cortex tissue from 107 human fetal and child donors spanning 6 post-conceptual weeks to 8 years old. DNA methylation of post-mortem bulk pre-frontal cortex tissue was profiled for 107 individuals: 95 fetal (6 - 33 post-conceptual weeks) and 12 child (0 - 8 years).