Abstract
Background DNA methylation profiles associated with childhood asthma might provide novel insights into disease pathogenesis. We did an epigenome-wide association study to assess methylation profiles associated with childhood asthma.
Methods We did a large-scale epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) within the Mechanisms of the Development of ALLergy (MeDALL) project. We examined epigenome-wide methylation using Illumina Infinium Human Methylation450 BeadChips (450K) in whole blood in 207 children with asthma and 610 controls at age 4-5 years, and 185 children with asthma and 546 controls at age 8 years using a cross-sectional case-control design. After identification of differentially methylated CpG sites in the discovery analysis, we did a validation study in children (4-16 years; 247 cases and 2949 controls) from six additional European cohorts and meta-analysed the results. We next investigated whether replicated CpG sites in cord blood predict later asthma in 1316 children. We subsequently investigated cell-type-specific methylation of the identified CpG sites in eosinophils and respiratory epithelial cells and their related gene-expression signatures. We studied cell-type specificity of the asthma association of the replicated CpG sites in 455 respiratory epithelial cell samples, collected by nasal brushing of 16-year-old children as well as in DNA isolated from blood eosinophils (16 with asthma, eight controls [age 2-56 years]) and compared this with whole-blood DNA samples of 74 individuals with asthma and 93 controls (age 1-79 years). Whole-blood transcriptional profiles associated with replicated CpG sites were annotated using RNA-seq data of subsets of peripheral blood mononuclear cells sorted by fluorescence-activated cell sorting.
Findings 27 methylated CpG sites were identified in the discovery analysis. 14 of these CpG sites were replicated and passed genome-wide significance (p
Interpretation Reduced whole-blood DNA methylation at 14 CpG sites acquired after birth was strongly associated with childhood asthma. These CpG sites and their associated transcriptional profiles indicate activation of eosinophils and cytotoxic T cells in childhood asthma. Our findings merit further investigations of the role of epigenetics in a clinical context.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 379-388 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | The Lancet. Respiratory Medicine |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 5 |
Early online date | 26-Feb-2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - May-2018 |
Keywords
- GENOMEWIDE ASSOCIATION
- PHENOTYPES
- CHILDREN
- COHORT
- IGE
- POPULATION
- COLLECTION
- EXPOSURE
- RHINITIS
- IMMUNITY