Distribution of catechol-O-methyltransferase expression in human central nervous system

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT, EC 2.1.1.6) is a ubiquitous enzyme crucial to catechol metabolism. Two isoforms exist in the human central nervous system (CNS) and they are encoded by two transcripts (1.3 and 1.5 kb) in most human tissues. Using two alpha-32P-labeled probes, we found only the 1.5 kb transcript in all 16 regions of the human CNS using commercially available Northern blots. Spinal cord had the highest and amygdala had the lowest levels of expression. The other CNS regions shared a similar level of expression. The distributions of COMT gene expression relative to whole brain between both probes were significantly correlated. Our study shows that the expression of the 1.5kb transcript is crucial for COMT activity in all regions of the human CNS.