B lymphocyte activation induces DNA methylation reprogramming and establishes a common epigenetic signature in memory B and plasma cell compartments [DNA methylation profiling]

DNA methylation profiling of human B cell populations representing a developmental series before and after immune activation. The B cells are derived from inflamed tonsils. The B cells were already activated in vivo in patients, therefore there was no need to stimulate the B cells after isolation. Gene expression profiling was also performed from the same samples. Four B cell subsets: Naïve, germinal center B cells (GC), memory B cells, and plasma cells (PC) were purified by FACS ex vivo from tonsils of 8 human subjects. Methylated CpG island Recovery assay (MIRA) was utilized to enrich for methylated DNA fragments from each sample for microarray analysis. *** This Series reports DNA methylation profiling data. ***