Epigenomic analysis of neonatal dendritic cells in mice with increased allergic susceptibility

ABSTRACT: RATIONALE: In a mouse model of maternal transmission of asthma risk (J. Immunol 170:1683, 2003), baby mice of asthmatic (As), but not normal (Nrm), mothers show increased susceptibility to allergy. We previously showed that adoptive transfer to normal baby mice of dendritic cells (DCs) harvested from asthma-susceptible but allergen-naïve neonates reproduces the increased susceptibility to asthma. Hence, the maternal effect is mediated by altered neonatal DCs, which skew immune responses towards a pro-allergic Th2 phenotype. To identify potential molecular mechanisms, we performed epigenomic profiling of isolated neonatal DCs. METHODS: BALB/c mice were sensitized by 2 i.p. injections of ovalbumin (OVA) in alum and repeatedly challenged with OVA aerosols (As) prior to mating with normal males. Purified splenic CD11c+ DCs of 14-day old allergen-naïve offspring from these As and control Nrm mothers were isolated using magnetic beads. Methylation profiles of genomic DNA were obtained using Switchgear epigenomic chip arrays. After normalization and background correction analysis using significance analysis for microarrays (SAM) and ANOVA was performed. RESULTS: We identified 300 to 6000 (depending on stringency) chromosomal regions with significantly different methylation status, (2 – 10 fold). Clustering methods and pathway analysis identified several interrelated gene groups that merit further study. CONCLUSION: Maternal asthma causes multiple significant epigenetic changes in neonatal dendritic cells. Keywords: Dendritic cells, genomic DNA, DNA methylation, allergy, asthma The analysis includes 9 samples of genomic DNA from isolated splenic CD11c+ dendritic cells (>95% pure) per group. The two groups are neonates born to mothers with induced allergy to ovalbumin, and normal control neonates. All neonates are genetically and environmentally identical, and allergen-naive.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

SUBMITTER: Alexey Fedulov 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-13380 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress