CD4+ T-cell DNA methylation changes during pregnancy significantly correlate with disease-associated methylation changes in autoimmune diseases

Epigenetics may play a central, yet unexplored, role in the profound changes that the maternal immune system undergoes during pregnancy and could be involved in the pregnancy-induced modulation of several autoimmune diseases. We investigated changes in the methylome in isolated circulating CD4+ T-cells in non-pregnant and pregnant women, during the 1st and 2nd trimester, using the Illumina Infinium Human Methylation 450K array, and explored how these changes were related to autoimmune diseases that are known to be affected during pregnancy. Pregnancy was associated with several hundreds of methylation differences, particularly during the 2nd trimester. A network-based modular approach identified several genes, e.g., CD28, FYN, VAV1 and pathways related to T-cell signalling and activation, highlighting T-cell regulation as a central component of the observed methylation alterations. The identified pregnancy module was significantly enriched for disease-associated methylation changes related to multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. A negative correlation between pregnancy-associated methylation changes and disease-associated changes was found for multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, diseases that are known to improve during pregnancy whereas a positive correlation was found for systemic lupus erythematosus, a disease that instead worsens during pregnancy. Thus, the directionality of the observed changes is in line with the previously observed effect of pregnancy on disease activity. Our systems medicine approach supports the importance of the methylome in immune regulation of T-cells during pregnancy. Our findings highlight the relevance of using pregnancy as a model for understanding and identifying disease-related mechanisms involved in the modulation of autoimmune diseases.Abbreviations: BMIQ: beta-mixture quantile dilation; DMGs: differentially methylated genes; DMPs: differentially methylated probes; FE: fold enrichment; FDR: false discovery rate; GO: gene ontology; GWAS: genome-wide association studies; MDS: multidimensional scaling; MS: multiple sclerosis; PBMC: peripheral blood mononuclear cells; PBS: phosphate buffered saline; PPI; protein-protein interaction; RA: rheumatoid arthritis; SD: standard deviation; SLE: systemic lupus erythematosus; SNP: single nucleotide polymorphism; TH: CD4+ T helper cell; VIStA: diVIsive Shuffling Approach.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2022

Erschienen:

2022

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:17

Enthalten in:

Epigenetics - 17(2022), 9 vom: 04. Sept., Seite 1040-1055

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Badam, Tejaswi V [VerfasserIn]
Hellberg, Sandra [VerfasserIn]
Mehta, Ratnesh B [VerfasserIn]
Lechner-Scott, Jeannette [VerfasserIn]
Lea, Rodney A [VerfasserIn]
Tost, Jorg [VerfasserIn]
Mariette, Xavier [VerfasserIn]
Svensson-Arvelund, Judit [VerfasserIn]
Nestor, Colm E [VerfasserIn]
Benson, Mikael [VerfasserIn]
Berg, Göran [VerfasserIn]
Jenmalm, Maria C [VerfasserIn]
Gustafsson, Mika [VerfasserIn]
Ernerudh, Jan [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

CD28 Antigens
CD4+ T cells
Epigenetics
Journal Article
Methylation
Module
Multiple sclerosis
Phosphates
Pregnancy
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Rheumatoid arthritis
Systemic lupus erythematosus

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 19.09.2022

Date Revised 30.09.2022

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1080/15592294.2021.1982510

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM331470063