Coordinated changes in AHRR methylation in lymphoblasts and pulmonary macrophages from smokers.

ABSTRACT: Smoking is associated with a wide variety of adverse health outcomes including cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, depression, and heart disease. Unfortunately, the molecular mechanisms through which these effects are conveyed are not clearly understood. To examine the potential role of epigenetic factors in these processes, we examined the relationship of smoking to genome wide methylation and gene expression using biomaterial from two independent samples, lymphoblast DNA and RNA (n = 119) and lung alveolar macrophage DNA (n = 19). We found that in both samples current smoking status was associated with significant changes in DNA methylation, in particular at the aryl hydrocarbon receptor repressor (AHRR), a known tumor suppressor. Both baseline DNA methylation and sm

SUBMITTER: Monick MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3318996 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature