A Genome-Wide Methylation Study of Severe Vitamin D Deficiency in African American Adolescents

Objectives To test the hypothesis that changes in DNA methylation are involved in vitamin D deficiency-related immune cell regulation using an unbiased genome-wide approach combined with a genomic and epigenomic integrative approach.Study design We performed a genome-wide methylation scan using the Illumina HumanMethylation 27 Bead-Chip on leukocyte DNA of 11 cases of vitamin D deficiency (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH) D] 75 nmol/L); the subjects were African American normal-weight (body mass indexResults A total of 79 CpG sites achieved raw PConclusion Severe vitamin D deficiency is associated with methylation changes in leukocyte DNA. The genomic and epigenomic approach reinforce the crucial roles played by the DHCR7, CYP2R1, and CYP24A1 genes in vitamin D metabolism. (J Pediatr 2013;162:1004-9).