DNA methylation profiles of four immune cell types from MS patients and healthy controls. DNA methylation profiles of four immune cell types from MS patients and healthy controls

How epigenetic changes contribute to MS pathogenesis is still poorly understood. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in four immune cell populations isolated from MS patients at clinical disease onset. We also performed parallel transcriptome analysis in B cells to better understand the functional consequences of the DNA methylation changes in MS. Overall design: Four immune cell populations, namely CD4+ and CD8+T cells, CD14+ monocytes and CD19+ B cells, were FACS sorted from PBMC samples from a cohort of MS and HC subjects. Cell were then used for DNA extraction and DNA methylation profiling by bisulfite sequencing (BS-seq). The total RNA from B cell fractions were used for mRNA-seq.