Atsushi Hattori, Atsuhito Seki, Naoto Inaba, Kazuhiko Nakabayashi, Kazue Takeda, Kuniko Tatsusmi, Yasuhiro Naiki, Akie Nakamura, Keisuke Ishiwata, Kenji Matsumoto, Michiyo Nasu, Kohji Okamura, Toshimi Michigami, Yuko Katoh-Fukui, Akihiro Umezawa, Tsutomu Ogata, Masayo Kagami, Maki Fukami
All attempts to identify male-specific growth genes in humans have failed. This study aimed to clarify why men are taller than women. Microarray-based transcriptome analysis of the cartilage tissues of four adults and chondrocytes of 12 children showed that the median expression levels of SHOX, a growth gene in the pseudoautosomal region (PAR), were higher in male samples than in female samples. Male-dominant SHOX expression was confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR for 36 cartilage samples. Reduced representation bisulfite sequencing of four cartilage samples revealed sex-biased DNA methylation in the SHOX-flanking regions, and pyrosequencing of 22 cartilage samples confirmed male-dominant DNA methylation at the CpG sites in the SHOX upstream region and exon 6a...
April 5, 2024: Scientific Reports