A Refined Approach to Isolate Interneurons for High-Validity Epigenetic Studies in Human Brain Tissue

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Abstract

Epigenetic research has made notable progress in recent years, yet our ability to explore the human brain at a cellular level remains limited. One of the main obstacles has been the difficulty of isolating specific neuronal populations from postmortem tissue—particularly interneurons, which play a central role in many psychiatric disorders. In this study, we present a practical and reproducible protocol for isolating GAD-positive interneurons from human brain samples. We isolate permeabilized cell-like structures suitable for downstream epigenetic analysis. To ensure specificity, we validated the isolated cells by comparing them with interneurons derived from human iPSCs. This approach allows for high-quality DNA extraction suitable for downstream epigenetic analysis, including methylation-specific PCR. By targeting a well-defined neuronal subtype, our method provides a solid foundation for studying the molecular changes associated with disorders such as schizophrenia and autism. This protocol opens new doors for cell-specific investigations in brain tissue, a step forward in understanding how epigenetic mechanisms contribute to neuropsychiatric pathophysiology.