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Epigenome-wide cross-tissue correlation of human bone and blood DNA methylation–can blood be used as a surrogate for bone?

Ebrahimi, Parvaneh LU ; Luthman, Holger LU ; McGuigan, Fiona E. LU orcid and Akesson, Kristina E. LU (2021) In Epigenetics 16(1). p.92-105
Abstract

Difficulty in obtaining bone tissue is an obstacle to studying epigenetics to understand gene–environment interactions, and their role in disease pathogenesis. Blood is an obvious alternative and in this proof of principle study, our aim was to systematically investigate whether blood is a viable surrogate for bone. We measured epigenome-wide DNA methylation at 850 K CpG sites in matched trabecular bone and peripheral blood collected from the same patients at the same time-point (n = 12 women; 66–85y), to investigate the between-tissue correspondence. What constituted a CpG site with corresponding methylation in both tissues was stringently defined. Only sites highly correlated (r2 > 0.74; FDR q-value <0.05) and at... (More)

Difficulty in obtaining bone tissue is an obstacle to studying epigenetics to understand gene–environment interactions, and their role in disease pathogenesis. Blood is an obvious alternative and in this proof of principle study, our aim was to systematically investigate whether blood is a viable surrogate for bone. We measured epigenome-wide DNA methylation at 850 K CpG sites in matched trabecular bone and peripheral blood collected from the same patients at the same time-point (n = 12 women; 66–85y), to investigate the between-tissue correspondence. What constituted a CpG site with corresponding methylation in both tissues was stringently defined. Only sites highly correlated (r2 > 0.74; FDR q-value <0.05) and at least 80% similarity in methylation level (Δβ <0.2) between paired samples were retained. In total, 28,549 CpG sites were similarly methylated in bone and blood. Between 33% and 49% of loci associated with bone phenotypes through GWAS were represented among these sites, and major pathways relevant to bone regulation were enriched. The results from this study indicate that blood can mirror the bone methylome and capture sites related to bone regulation. This study shows that in principal, peripheral blood is a feasible surrogate for bone tissue in DNA methylation investigations. As the first step, this will provide a platform for future studies in bone epigenetics, and possibly for larger-scale epidemiological studies.

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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
blood, bone, DNA methylation, epigenetics, surrogate tissue
in
Epigenetics
volume
16
issue
1
pages
92 - 105
publisher
Landes Bioscience
external identifiers
  • pmid:32692944
  • scopus:85088480840
ISSN
1559-2294
DOI
10.1080/15592294.2020.1788325
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ba950970-9262-41c6-b121-d3c66e0d66d9
date added to LUP
2020-08-05 10:20:47
date last changed
2024-04-03 09:27:06
@article{ba950970-9262-41c6-b121-d3c66e0d66d9,
  abstract     = {{<p>Difficulty in obtaining bone tissue is an obstacle to studying epigenetics to understand gene–environment interactions, and their role in disease pathogenesis. Blood is an obvious alternative and in this proof of principle study, our aim was to systematically investigate whether blood is a viable surrogate for bone. We measured epigenome-wide DNA methylation at 850 K CpG sites in matched trabecular bone and peripheral blood collected from the same patients at the same time-point (n = 12 women; 66–85y), to investigate the between-tissue correspondence. What constituted a CpG site with corresponding methylation in both tissues was stringently defined. Only sites highly correlated (r<sup>2</sup> &gt; 0.74; FDR q-value &lt;0.05) and at least 80% similarity in methylation level (Δβ &lt;0.2) between paired samples were retained. In total, 28,549 CpG sites were similarly methylated in bone and blood. Between 33% and 49% of loci associated with bone phenotypes through GWAS were represented among these sites, and major pathways relevant to bone regulation were enriched. The results from this study indicate that blood can mirror the bone methylome and capture sites related to bone regulation. This study shows that in principal, peripheral blood is a feasible surrogate for bone tissue in DNA methylation investigations. As the first step, this will provide a platform for future studies in bone epigenetics, and possibly for larger-scale epidemiological studies.</p>}},
  author       = {{Ebrahimi, Parvaneh and Luthman, Holger and McGuigan, Fiona E. and Akesson, Kristina E.}},
  issn         = {{1559-2294}},
  keywords     = {{blood; bone; DNA methylation; epigenetics; surrogate tissue}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{92--105}},
  publisher    = {{Landes Bioscience}},
  series       = {{Epigenetics}},
  title        = {{Epigenome-wide cross-tissue correlation of human bone and blood DNA methylation–can blood be used as a surrogate for bone?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15592294.2020.1788325}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/15592294.2020.1788325}},
  volume       = {{16}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}