Next, we investigated possible changes in Mecp2/MeCP2 expression induced by decitabine. Quantitative RT-PCR experiments indicated that decitabine treatment at D2 caused slight but statistically significant upregulation of Mecp2e1 (1.41-fold, P <0.05), with minimal and insignificant increased levels of the total Mecp2 (1.2-fold, P = 0.5), and unchanged levels of Mecp2e2 (Figure 5A). Analysis of protein levels by WB showed that decitabine upregulated total MeCP2 (2.5-fold, P <0.05), and MeCP2E1 (3.1-fold, P <0.05) protein expression (Figure 5B-C). However, the lack of an antibody specific for MeCP2E2 limited our investigation of MeCP2E2 protein levels. Correlation analysis of transcript and protein levels of Mecp2/MeCP2 at D2 indicated significant correlation between the detected transcript and protein expression (Mecp2/MeCP2 (r = 0.97, P <0.05) and Mecp2e1/MeCP2E1 (r = 0.98, P <0.01); Figure 5G).
