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DNA methylation profiles in type 1 diabetes twins point to strong epigenetic effects on etiology.

ABSTRACT: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) shows ?40% concordance rate in monozygotic twins (MZ) suggesting a role for environmental factors and/or epigenetic modifications in the etiology of the disease. The aim of our study was to dissect the contribution of epigenetic factors, particularly, DNA methylation (DNAm), to the incomplete penetrance of T1D. We performed DNAm profiling in lymphocyte cell lines from 3 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs discordant for T1D and 6 MZ twin pairs concordant for the disease using HumanMethylation27 BeadChip. This assay assesses the methylation state of 27,578 CpG sites, mostly located within proximal promoter regions. We identified 88 CpG sites displaying significant methylation changes in all T1D-discordant MZ twin pairs. Functional annotation of the genes with distinct CpG methylation profiles in T1D samples showed differential DNAm of immune response and defense response pathways between affected and unaffected twins. Integration of DNAm data with GWAS data mapped several known T1D associated genes, HLA, INS, IL-2RB, CD226, which showed significant differences in DNAm between affected and unaffected of twins. Our findings suggest that abnormalities of DNA methylation patterns, known to regulate gene transcription, may be involved in the pathogenesis of T1D.

SUBMITTER: Stefan M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3995844 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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DNA methylation profiles in type 1 diabetes twins point to strong epigenetic effects on etiology.

Stefan Mihaela M Zhang Weijia W Concepcion Erlinda E Yi Zhengzi Z Tomer Yaron Y

Journal of autoimmunity 20131107

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) shows ∼40% concordance rate in monozygotic twins (MZ) suggesting a role for environmental factors and/or epigenetic modifications in the etiology of the disease. The aim of our study was to dissect the contribution of epigenetic factors, particularly, DNA methylation (DNAm), to the incomplete penetrance of T1D. We performed DNAm profiling in lymphocyte cell lines from 3 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs discordant for T1D and 6 MZ twin pairs concordant for the disease using Human ...[more]

PMID: 24210274

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Project description:BackgroundMonozygotic twins discordant for type 2 diabetes constitute an ideal model to study environmental contributions to type 2 diabetic traits. We aimed to examine whether global DNA methylation differences exist in major glucose metabolic tissues from these twins.Methodology/principal findingsSkeletal muscle (n = 11 pairs) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (n = 5 pairs) biopsies were collected from 53-80 year-old monozygotic twin pairs discordant for type 2 diabetes. DNA methylation was measured by microarrays at 26,850 cytosine-guanine dinucleotide (CpG) sites in the promoters of 14,279 genes. Bisulfite sequencing was applied to validate array data and to quantify methylation of intergenic repetitive DNA sequences. The overall intra-pair variation in DNA methylation was large in repetitive (LINE1, D4Z4 and NBL2) regions compared to gene promoters (standard deviation of intra-pair differences: 10% points vs. 4% points, P<0.001). Increased variation of LINE1 sequence methylation was associated with more phenotypic dissimilarity measured as body mass index (r = 0.77, P = 0.007) and 2-hour plasma glucose (r = 0.66, P = 0.03) whereas the variation in promoter methylation did not associate with phenotypic differences. Validated methylation changes were identified in the promoters of known type 2 diabetes-related genes, including PPARGC1A in muscle (13.9±6.2% vs. 9.0±4.5%, P = 0.03) and HNF4A in adipose tissue (75.2±3.8% vs. 70.5±3.7%, P<0.001) which had increased methylation in type 2 diabetic individuals. A hypothesis-free genome-wide exploration of differential methylation without correction for multiple testing identified 789 and 1,458 CpG sites in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue, respectively. These methylation changes only reached some percentage points, and few sites passed correction for multiple testing.Conclusions/significanceOur study suggests that likely acquired DNA methylation changes in skeletal muscle or adipose tissue gene promoters are quantitatively small between type 2 diabetic and non-diabetic twins. The importance of methylation changes in candidate genes such as PPARGC1A and HNF4A should be examined further by replication in larger samples.

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DNA methylation profiles in type 1 diabetes twins point to strong epigenetic effects on etiology.

Publications

DNA methylation profiles in type 1 diabetes twins point to strong epigenetic effects on etiology.

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