title: The landscape of DNA repeat elements in human heart failure.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The epigenomes of healthy and diseased human hearts were recently examined by genome-wide DNA methylation profiling. Repetitive elements, heavily methylated in post-natal tissue, have variable methylation profiles in cancer but methylation of repetitive elements in the heart has never been examined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We analyzed repetitive elements from all repeat families in human myocardial samples, and found that satellite repeat elements were significantly hypomethylated in end-stage cardiomyopathic hearts relative to healthy normal controls. Satellite repeat elements are almost always centromeric or juxtacentromeric, and their overexpression correlates with disease aggressiveness in cancer. Similarly, we found that hypomethylation of satellite repeat elements correlated with up to 27-fold upregulation of the corresponding transcripts in end-stage cardiomyopathic hearts. No other repeat family exhibited differential methylation between healthy and cardiomyopathic hearts, with the exception of the Alu element SINE1/7SL, for which a modestly consistent trend of increased methylation was observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Satellite repeat element transcripts, a form of non-coding RNA, have putative functions in maintaining genomic stability and chromosomal integrity. Further studies will be needed to establish the functional significance of these non-coding RNAs in the context of heart failure.
authors.forename: Syed
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Haider
authors.forename: Lina
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cordeddu
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: Mehregan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Movassagh
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Siggens
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vujic
authors.forename: Mun-Kit
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Choy
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goddard
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lio
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Foo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019175:DNA Methylation; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D015894:Genome, Human; D042822:Genomic Instability; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid