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

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 least 80% similarity in methylation level (Δβ <0.2

SUBMITTER: Ebrahimi P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7889104 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature