Department of Pediatrics, Division of Newborn Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Epigenomics. 2021 Jun;13(11):829-844. doi: 10.2217/epi-2021-0078. Epub 2021 Apr 27.
Neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a deadly and unpredictable gastrointestinal disease, for which no biomarker exists. We aimed to describe the methylation patterns in stool and colon from infants with NEC. We performed a high-resolution genome-wide epigenomic analysis using solution-phase hybridization and next-generation sequencing of bisulfite-converted DNA. Our data reveal significant genomic hypermethylation in NEC tissues compared with non-NEC controls. These changes were more pronounced in regions outside CpG islands and gene regulatory elements, suggesting that NEC-specific hypermethylation is not a nonspecific global phenomenon. This study provides evidence of a methylomic signature associated with NEC that is detectable noninvasively and provides a new opportunity for the development of a novel diagnostic method for NEC.
新生儿坏死性小肠结肠炎(NEC)是一种致命且难以预测的胃肠道疾病,目前尚无生物标志物。我们旨在描述患有 NEC 的婴儿粪便和结肠中的甲基化模式。我们使用溶液相杂交和亚硫酸氢盐转化 DNA 的下一代测序进行了高分辨率全基因组表观基因组分析。与非 NEC 对照相比,我们的数据显示 NEC 组织中存在显着的基因组高甲基化。这些变化在 CpG 岛和基因调控元件之外的区域更为明显,这表明 NEC 特异性高甲基化不是非特异性的全局现象。这项研究提供了与 NEC 相关的甲基组特征的证据,该特征可通过非侵入性检测到,并为开发 NEC 的新型诊断方法提供了新的机会。