Differentially methylated CpG sites in candidate genes related to inflammatory diseases.

<p>A) Heatmap of 1865 probes representing 293 candidate genes for selected inflammatory diseases showing differential methylation in blood cell populations. Candidate genes for the diseases asthma, atopy, atopic dermatitis, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes were selected from the Genome wide association study atlas (<a href="http://www.genome.gov/gwastudies/" target="_blank">http://www.genome.gov/gwastudies/</a>) <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0041361#pone.0041361-Hindorff1" target="_blank">[30]</a>. The heatmap is based on median M-values. The M-value is calculated as the log2 ratio of the intensities of methylated probe versus unmethylated probe <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0041361#pone.0041361-Du2" target="_blank">[46]</a>. Blue color indicates low DNA methylation while yellow represents high DNA methylation. WB = whole blood, CD4T = CD4⁺ T cells, CD8T = CD8⁺ T cells, CD56NK = CD56⁺ NK cells, CD19B = CD19⁺ B cells, CD14Mono = CD14⁺ monocytes. B) The genomic distribution of the differentially methylated probes associated with inflammatory complex diseases according to the UCSC RefGene group (included in the Illumina annotation data). Intergenic = site not annotated in a gene, TSS = transcription start site at 200–1500 bp, 5′ region = 5′UTR and 1st exon, Intragenic = gene body including introns and exons and, 3′ region = 3′UTR. UTR – untranslated region.