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Quantitative reconstruction of leukocyte subsets using DNA methylation

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Title Quantitative reconstruction of leukocyte subsets using DNA methylation
Names Accomando, William P. (creator)
Wiencke, John K. (creator)
Houseman, E. Andres (creator)
Nelson, Heather H. (creator)
Kelsey, Karl T. (creator)
Date Issued 2014-03-05 (iso8601)
Note This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the author(s) and published by BioMed Central Ltd. The published article can be found at: http://genomebiology.com/.
Abstract BACKGROUND: Cell lineage-specific DNA methylation patterns distinguish normal human leukocyte subsets and can
be used to detect and quantify these subsets in peripheral blood. We have developed an approach that uses DNA
methylation to simultaneously quantify multiple leukocyte subsets, enabling investigation of immune modulations
in virtually any blood sample including archived samples previously precluded from such analysis. Here we assess
the performance characteristics and validity of this approach.
RESULTS: Using Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation27 and VeraCode GoldenGate Methylation Assay microarrays, we
measure DNA methylation in leukocyte subsets purified from human whole blood and identify cell lineage-specific
DNA methylation signatures that distinguish human T cells, B cells, NK cells, monocytes, eosinophils, basophils and
neutrophils. We employ a bioinformatics-based approach to quantify these cell types in complex mixtures, including
whole blood, using DNA methylation at as few as 20 CpG loci. A reconstruction experiment confirms that the approach
could accurately measure the composition of mixtures of human blood leukocyte subsets. Applying the DNA methylation-based
approach to quantify the cellular components of human whole blood, we verify its accuracy by direct comparison to
gold standard immune quantification methods that utilize physical, optical and proteomic characteristics of the cells. We also
demonstrate that the approach is not affected by storage of blood samples, even under conditions prohibiting the use of
gold standard methods.
CONCLUSIONS: Cell mixture distributions within peripheral blood can be assessed accurately and reliably using DNA
methylation. Thus, precise immune cell differential estimates can be reconstructed using only DNA rather than whole cells.
Genre Article
Access Condition http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/
Identifier Accomando, W. P., Wiencke, J. K., Houseman, E. A., Nelson, H. H., & Kelsey, K. T. (2014). Quantitative reconstruction of leukocyte subsets using DNA methylation. Genome Biology, 15(3), R50. doi:10.1186/gb-2014-15-3-r50

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