Genome-wide DNA methylation and mRNA transcription analysis revealed aberrant gene regulation pathways in patients with dermatomyositis and polymyositis

[...]genome-wide DNA methylation analysis, transcriptional profiling, integration of methylation with transcriptional data, and functional classification/gene network analyses were performed. To explore the association between aberrant methylation and differentially expressed genes in DM and PM patients, we mapped the averaged normalized DNA methylation data of the CpG probes to the nearest data and found a significant inverse correlation between methylations and gene expression, with correlation coefficients of –0.0697 for DM and –0.0656 for PM [Supplementary Figure 3A, B, http://links.lww.com/CM9/C189]. Except for PDE6H and MYB, aboved-mentioned genes exhibited changes identical to those observed in the microarray findings [Figure 1E]. [...]ABLIM1, MYB, and SLFN5 were expressed at higher levels in IIM patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) compared to those without ILD [Figure 1F]. [...]this study emphasizes the crucial roles of DNA methylation in IIMs.