GSE23784
Global epigenomic analysis of primary human pancreatic islets provides insights into type 2 diabetes susceptibility loci
Identifying cis-regulatory elements is important to understand how human pancreatic islets modulate gene expression in physiologic or pathophysiologic (e.g., diabetic) conditions. We conducted genome-wide analysis of DNase I hypersensitive sites, histone H3 lysine methylation marks (K4me1, K4me3, K79me2), and CCCTC factor (CTCF) binding in human islets. This identified ~18,000 putative promoters (several hundred novel and islet-active). Surprisingly, active promoter marks were absent at genes encoding islet-specific hormones, suggesting a distinct regulatory mechanism. Of 34,039 distal (non-promoter) regulatory elements, 47% are islet-unique and 22% are CTCF-bound. These findings present a global snapshot of the human islet epigenome and should provide functional context for non-coding variants emerging from genetic studies of T2D and other pancreatic islet disorders. Overall design: Three different islet samples were tested for DNase I hypersensitivity by DNase-Seq. Five different primary pancreatic islet samples were evaluated for several chromatin modifications (H3K4me3, H3K4me1, H3K79me2) by ChIP-seq. One islet sample was evaluated for CTCF binding via ChIP-seq, All ChIP-seq samples have both non-specific IP (GFP) and input DNA controls.