Age-related profiling of DNA methylation in CD8+ T cells reveals changes in immune response and transcriptional regulator genes
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ABSTRACT: Human ageing affects the immune system resulting in an overall decline in immunocompetence. Although all immune cells are affected during aging, the functional capacity of T cells is most influenced and is linked to decreased responsiveness to infections and impaired differentiation. We studied age-related changes in DNA methylation and gene expression in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from younger and older individuals. We observed marked difference between T cell subsets, with increased number of methylation changes and higher methylome variation in CD8+ T cells with age. The majority of age-related hypermethylated sites were located at CpG islands of silent genes and enriched for repressive histone marks. Specifically, in CD8+ T cell subset we identified strong inverse correlation between methylation and expression levels in genes associated with T cell mediated immune response (LGALS1, IFNG, CCL5, GZMH, CCR7, CD27 and CD248) and differentiation (SATB1, TCF7, BCL11B and RUNX3). Our results thus suggest the link between age-related epigenetic changes and impaired T cell function.
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE59065 | GEO | 2015/05/29
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA254323
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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