Quantitative analysis of human tissue-specific differences in methylation.
Tissue-specific differentially methylated regions (tDMRs) have been identified and implicated for their indispensable involvement in mammalian development and tissue differentiation. In this report, a quantitative DNA methylation analysis was performed for 13 human orthologous regions of recently confirmed mouse tDMRs by using Sequenom Mass Array, by which bisulfite-treated fragments are quantitatively detected using time of flight mass spectroscopy analysis. Eight regions were shown as tDMRs in various tissues from three independent individuals. Testis DNA samples from eight individuals were also analyzed for methylation. Interestingly, there is evidence that the DNA methylation level is divergent among individuals. DNA methylation levels of five testis-specific DMRs were significantly inversely correlated with the number of spermatocytes. However, a positive correlation was seen at tDMRs located near the TRIM38 and CASZ1 genes. Our results indicate that tDMRs are conserved between mouse and human and may have an important role in regulating tissue function, differentiation, and aging.
Igarashi
Jun
J
Life Science, Advanced Research Institute for Sciences and Humanities, Nihon University, 12-5, Goban-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8251.
Muroi
Satomi
S
Kawashima
Hiroyuki
H
Wang
Xiaofei
X
Shinojima
Yui
Y
Kitamura
Eiko
E
Oinuma
Toshinori
T
Nemoto
Norimichi
N
Song
Fei
F
Ghosh
Srimoyee
S
Held
William A
WA
Nagase
Hiroki
H
D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics; D000070584:Tripartite Motif Proteins; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases
C511127:CASZ1 protein, human; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D011506:Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; D000070584:Tripartite Motif Proteins; C106984:TRIM38 protein, human; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases