Project description:Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of clonal disorders characterized variably by the presence of peripheral cytopenias, bone marrow hypercellularity and dysplastic changes in the bone marrow. While MDS patients have an increased risk of progression to acute myeloid leukemia (AML), most MDS patients actually succumb to progressive bone marrow failure. Amongst patients classified as low-risk MDS, different clinical evolutions have been observed, with some patients remaining relatively stable for long periods of time (herein, stable MDS), while others show more progressive disease, with worsening cytopenias, and often increased transfusion requirements (herein, progressive MDS). Current risk stratification strategies fail to distinguish these two groups at diagnosis. We report here that these distinct behaviors are encoded at the epigenetic level and that examining DNA methylation profiles of low-risk MDS patients captures underlying differences between the two different groups. In this study, we identified 356 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) between stable and progressive low-risk MDS at the time of diagnosis. The number of DMRs was almost doubled at the time of progression (681 follow-up DMRs), and this was accompanied by an increase in the local variability at specific methylation regions, and an increase in heterogeneity over time. These findings reveal previously unrecognized epigenetic heterogeneity in low-risk MDS patients and opens the possibility for using epigenetic differences to help improve risk-stratification at diagnosis.
Project description:To better understand the natural history of bone marrow failure syndromes, we analyzed 124 single nucleotide polymorphism arrays (SNP-A) from a comprehensively characterized cohort of 91 patients who had SNP-A for clinical evaluation of BMFS. 67 samples from 51 patients were genotyped with the Quad610, and 57 samples from 54 patients were genotyped with the Omni1-Quad. This submission includes 55 samples from 54 patients that were genotyped with Omni1-Quad. Illumina Infinium SNP-A genotyping was performed on DNA extracted from bone marrow aspirates using standard manufacturer's protocol
Project description:To better understand the natural history of bone marrow failure syndromes, we analyzed 124 single nucleotide polymorphism arrays (SNP-A) from a comprehensively characterized cohort of 91 patients who had SNP-A for clinical evaluation of BMFS. 67 samples from 51 patients were genotyped with the Quad610, and 57 samples from 54 patients were genotyped with the Omni1-Quad. This submission includes 67 samples from 51 patients that were genotyped with Illumina Quad610 Beadchip. Illumina Infinium SNP-A genotyping was performed on DNA extracted from bone marrow aspirates using standard manufacturer's protocol
Project description:Dyskeratosis congenita (DKC) and idiopathic aplastic anemia (AA) are bone marrow failure syndromes that share characteristics of premature aging with severe telomere attrition. In this study, we analyzed blood samples of 62 AA and 13 DKC patients to demonstrate that their epigenetic age predictions are overall increased, albeit not directly correlated with telomere length. Aberrant DNA methylation was observed in the gene PRDM8 in DKC and AA as well as in other diseases with premature aging phenotype, such as Down syndrome, Werner syndrome and Hutchinson-Gilford-Progeria syndrome. To gain further insight into the functional relevance of PRDM8 we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with heterozygous and homozygous knockout. Loss of PRDM8 impaired hematopoietic and neuronal differentiation of iPSCs, but it did not impact on epigenetic age. Taken together, aberrant DNA methylation in PRDM8 provides a biomarker for bone marrow failure syndromes, which may contribute to the hematopoietic and neuronal phenotypes of premature aging syndromes.
Project description:Dyskeratosis congenita (DKC) and idiopathic aplastic anemia (AA) are bone marrow failure syndromes that share characteristics of premature aging with severe telomere attrition. In this study, we analyzed blood samples of 62 AA and 13 DKC patients to demonstrate that their epigenetic age predictions are overall increased, albeit not directly correlated with telomere length. Aberrant DNA methylation was observed in the gene PRDM8 in DKC and AA as well as in other diseases with premature aging phenotype, such as Down syndrome, Werner syndrome and Hutchinson-Gilford-Progeria syndrome. To gain further insight into the functional relevance of PRDM8 we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with heterozygous and homozygous knockout. Loss of PRDM8 impaired hematopoietic and neuronal differentiation of iPSCs, but it did not impact on epigenetic age. Taken together, aberrant DNA methylation in PRDM8 provides a biomarker for bone marrow failure syndromes, which may contribute to the hematopoietic and neuronal phenotypes of premature aging syndromes.
Project description:Diamond Blackfan anemia is a congenital bone marrow failure syndrome characterized by hypoproliferative anemia, often with associated physical abnormalities. Perturbations of the ribosome appear critically important to the development of DBA, as alterations in 9 different ribosomal protein genes have been identified in multiple unrelated families, along with rarer abnormalities of additional ribosomal proteins. However, presently only 50-60% of patients have an identifiable genetic lesion by ribosomal protein gene sequencing. Using genome-wide SNP array to evaluate for regions of recurrent copy variation, we identified 2 patients with mosaic loss in the region of the the chromosome 5-deleted region involved in somatically-acquired 5q- myelodysplastic syndrome. Samples were analyzed on Illumina HumanOmni1_Quad, HumanOmniExpress, or HumanOmniExpressExome Genotyping bead arrays; 1 patient was available for longitudinal study including assessment of mosaicism in lymphoid and myeloid-enriched cell populations before treatement with lenolidamide. Similar studies were performed while on lenoldamide therapy in peripheral blood at 3 months and in bone marrow at 20 months of treatment. One patient with mosaic deletion of 5q was available for longitudinal study including assessment of gene expression in bone marrow before and during treatment with lenalidomide.