Genome-wide analysis of mRNA polyadenylation in prefrontal cortex of idiopathic ASD patients

The aim of this work was to test the mRNA polyadenylation status in the brain of autistic patients. We performed poly(U)-chromatography on RNA purified from post-mortem prefrontal cortex tissue of control and idiopathic ASD cases. Brain specimens from postmortem prefrontal cortex - BA8/9 of male ASD patients and CTRL of an age ranging between 5-23 years were homogenized and total RNA (INPUT) was extracted. The poly(A) RNA fraction was purified by poly(U)-chromatography. Differential elution with 25% or 90% formamide yielded two fractions of mRNAs enriched for short (WASH) or long (ELUTED) poly(A)-tails, respectively. mRNA fractions were extracted, purified and amplified. cDNA was hybridized in GeneChip Human PrimeView arrays and CEL files were generated from DAT files using Affymetrix Command Console software.