Quantitative reconstruction of leukocyte subsets using DNA methylation

摘要

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.