Epigenome-wide Effects of Vitamin-D on Bronchial Epithelial Cells using ATAC-Seq and RNA-seq

Vitamin D has been associated with viral respiratory infections, the main cause of severe asthma exacerbations in children. We used ATAC-Seq to evaluate the effect of vitamin D on chromatin accessibility in immortalized (BEAS-2B), normal (NHBEC), and asthma (AAEC) bronchial epithelial cells cultured and stimulated with calcitriol, poly I:C (to simulate viral infection), both, or sham (culture media), as well as the effect on gene expression. Overall design: ATAC-Seq and total RNA-Seq were performed on 4 asthma human bronchial epithelial cell samples (AAEC), 4 normal human bronchial epithelial cell samples (NHBEC) and 4 immortalized (BEAS-2B) samples, respectively treated with calcitriol, poly I:C, both or sham (culture media).