DNA Hypomethylation–Mediated Transcription Dysregulation Participates in Pathogenesis of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a highly heterogeneous and genetically complex endocrine disorder. Although the etiology remains mostly elusive, growing evidence suggests that abnormal changes of DNA methylation correlate well with systemic and tissue-specific dysfunctions in PCOS. Herein, a dehydroepiandrosterone-induced PCOS-like mouse model which has a similar metabolic and reproductive phenotype as human patients with PCOS was generated. It was used to experimentally validate the potential role of aberrant DNA methylation in PCOS in this study. Integrated DNA methylation and transcriptome analysis revealed the potential role of genomic DNA hypomethylation in transcription regulation of PCOS and identified several key candidate genes, including BMP4, Adcy7, Tnfaip3, and Fas, which were regulated by aberrant DNA hypomethylation. Moreover, i.p. injection of S-adenosylmethionine increased the overall DNA methylation level of PCOS-like mice and restored expression of the candidate genes to similar levels as the control, alleviating reproductive and metabolic abnormalities in PCOS-like mice. These findings provide direct evidence showing the importance of normal DNA methylation in epigenetic regulation of PCOS and potential targets for diagnosis and treatment of the disease.