Methylation level of Bcl11b promoter in PBMCs
The methylation status of AS patients and healthy controls has been depicted in Table ……., Figure ……... All the 15 CpG sites were more methylated in patients compared with control group. Methylation analysis of 15 CpG sites together revealed that the promoter region of Bcl11b gene in AS patients were hyper-methylated in comparison to healthy individuals …show more content…
Over the course of past few decades, epigenetic concept is a fast-expanding area that related studies have particularly focused on to shed a new light on the disease development circumstances. A bulk of investigations has focused on the role of 5-methylcytosine (5-mC) in CpG-rich regions, known as CpG islands, on transcription. CpG islands are commonly enriched in promoters in vicinity to transcriptional start sites. Methylation of cytosines has been associated with long-term gene silencing such as X-chromosome inactivation. DNA methylation is mediated by DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) enzymes, with S-adenosyl-methionine (SAM) as the methyl donor. The methyl group (CH3) is transferred onto the C5 position of cytosines to form the 5-methylcytosine (5mC) …show more content…
Through animal studies, it has been documented that environmental factors (such as physical, chemical and biological agents) can either induce AID or exacerbate the disease circumstance (19). Not to mention, it’s difficult to identify and describe a certain agent for one certain disease, regarding the distinct agent can trigger multiple diseases, and also various factors can manifest the identical clinical features. As a result, it appears to be beneficial to devise a new criteria for environmentally related AID (20). It is believed nowadays that environmental factors can break tolerance through post-translational modifications as well as molecular mimicry to induce self-antigen modulation then trigger a range of immune responses (21, 22). Considering these surveys, epigenetics is of unique importance to explain the etiology of AS.
In the DNA methylation modification perspective occurred in AS patients, through a study by Lai et al., it has been demonstrated that methylation of SOCS-1 can be detected in serum of HLA-B27-positive AS patients but not in B27-positive healthy controls. Methylation level of SOCS-1 was shown to correlate with the degree of inflammation with respect of sacroiliitis, acute phase reactant, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive