The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase (PDE) family, and PDE4 subfamily. This PDE hydrolyzes the second messenger, cAMP, which is a regulator and mediator of a number of cellular responses to extracellular signals. Thus, by regulating the cellular concentration of cAMP, this protein plays a key role in many important physiological processes. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been described for this gene.[provided by RefSeq, Jul 2011]
Forensic Context
A review of forensic epigenetic applications in human tissues indicates that DNA methylation at a CpG site in the PDE4C gene is an age-associated marker, with its methylation degree not being relevantly influenced by the state of decomposition in postmortem buccal swabs [Gerra et al. DOI:10.1007/s00414-024-03165-8]. Another review on molecular age estimation confirms that methylation at specific CpG sites in the PDE4C gene is utilized in age prediction models from human blood and buccal epithelium, with DNA methylation profiling established as the most promising method for accurate forensic age prediction [Zolotarenko et al. DOI:10.1134/S1022795419120147]. A study in mice demonstrated that chronic methamphetamine exposure significantly downregulated the expression of the PDE4C mRNA in the nucleus accumbens, identifying it as a putative target gene for METH-regulated miRNAs such as mmu-miR-486-3p [Zhu et al. DOI:10.002/jnr.23605].