Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that causes chronic inflammation of the joints. Recent evidence indicated the epigenetic changes may contribute to the pathogenesis of RA.
To understand the extent and nature of dysregulated DNA methylation in RA CD4T cells, we performed a genome-wide DNA methylation study in CD4 + T cells in 12 RA patients compared to 12 matched normal healthy controls. Cytosine methylation status was quantified with Illumina methylation 450K microarray.
The DNA methylation profiling showed 383 hyper- and 785 hypo-methylated genes in the CD4 + T cells of the RA patients (p < 3.4 × 10
Genome-wide DNA methylation profile revealed significant DNA methylation change in CD4 + T cells from patients with RA.