Project description:Stratifying patients on the basis of molecular signatures could facilitate development of therapeutics that target pathways specific to a particular disease or tissue location. Previous studies suggest that pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is similar in all affected joints. Here we show that distinct DNA methylation and transcriptome signatures not only discriminate RA fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) from osteoarthritis FLS, but also distinguish RA FLS isolated from knees and hips. Using genome-wide methods, we show differences between RA knee and hip FLS in the methylation of genes encoding biological pathways, such as IL-6 signaling via JAK-STAT pathway. Furthermore, differentially expressed genes are identified between knee and hip FLS using RNA-seq. Double-evidenced genes that are both differentially methylated and expressed include multiple HOX genes. Joint-specific DNA signatures suggest that RA disease mechanisms might vary from joint to joint, thus potentially explaining some of the diversity of drug responses in RA patients.
Project description:Stratifying patients on the basis of molecular signatures could facilitate development of therapeutics that target pathways specific to a particular disease or tissue location. Previous studies suggest that pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is similar in all affected joints. Here we show that distinct DNA methylation and transcriptome signatures not only discriminate RA fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) from osteoarthritis FLS, but also distinguish RA FLS isolated from knees and hips. Using genome-wide methods, we show differences between RA knee and hip FLS in the methylation of genes encoding biological pathways, such as IL-6 signaling via JAK-STAT pathway. Furthermore, differentially expressed genes are identified between knee and hip FLS using RNA-seq. Double-evidenced genes that are both differentially methylated and expressed include multiple HOX genes. Joint-specific DNA signatures suggest that RA disease mechanisms might vary from joint to joint, thus potentially explaining some of the diversity of drug responses in RA patients.
Project description:Genome-wide DNA methylation level was studied to determine whether Rheumatoid arthritis patients (cases) has methylation differences comparing to normal controls in peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs). We used Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip array to determine the genome-wide DNA methylation difference in PBLs from Rheumatoid arthritis patients (cases) and normal controls
Project description:Genome-wide DNA methylation level was studied to determine whether Rheumatoid arthritis patients (cases) has methylation differences comparing to normal controls in PBLs. We used Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip array to determine the genome-wide DNA methylation difference in PBLs from Rheumatoid arthritis patients (cases) and normal controls Bisulphite converted DNA from the Rheumatoid arthritis patients (cases) and normal controls were hybridized to the Illumina Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip arrays
Project description:Autoimmune rheumatic diseases are complex disorders, whose etiopathology is attributed to a crosstalk between genetic predisposition and environmental factors. Both variants of autoimmune susceptibility genes and environment are involved in the generation of aberrant epigenetic profiles in a cell-specific manner, which ultimately result in dysregulation of expression. Furthermore, changes in miRNA expression profiles also cause gene dysregulation associated with aberrant phenotypes. In rheumatoid arthritis, several cell types are involved in the destruction of the joints, synovial fibroblasts being among the most important. In this study we performed DNA methylation and miRNA expression screening of a set of rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts and compared the results with those obtained from osteoarthritis patients with a normal phenotype. DNA methylation screening allowed us to identify changes in novel key target genes like IL6R, CAPN8 and DPP4, as well as several HOX genes. A significant proportion of genes undergoing DNA methylation changes were inversely correlated with expression. miRNA screening revealed the existence of subsets of miRNAs that underwent changes in expression. Integrated analysis highlighted sets of miRNAs that are controlled by DNA methylation, and genes that are regulated by DNA methylation and are targeted by miRNAs with a potential use as clinical markers. Our study enabled the identification of novel dysregulated targets in rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts and generated a new workflow for the integrated analysis of miRNA and epigenetic control. Comparison between the DNA methylation levels of synovial fibroblasts isolated from 6 Osteoarthritis and 6 Rheumatoid arthritis patients isolated from synovial tissues at the time of joint replacement. Bisulphite converted DNA from the 12 samples were hybridised to the Illumina Infinium 450k Human Methylation Beadchip
Project description:Synovial biopsies from rheumatoid arthritis patients were obtained and profiled using bisulfite-seq for whole-genome DNA methylation. Patients were stratified according to the number of swollen joints they had (SJC, swollen joint count) and divided in three groups for the differential expression analysis: None (SJC = 0), Low (1<= SJC <= 8), High (SJC > 8).