Identification of cell differentiation states based on methylation patterns

摘要

The present invention provides a novel method for the systematic identification of differentially methylated CpG dinucleotides positions within genomic DNA sequences for use as reliable markers to detect and characterize different stages of development or differentiation of cells corresponding to different classes of biological samples. Particular embodiments comprise the use of genome-wide discovery techniques for identification of differentially methylated CpG dinucleotide sequences, further identification of neighboring differentially methylated CpG dinucleotide sequences, scoring of the identified differentially methylated CpG positions according to discrimination indices, and confirmation of the predictive utility of selected differentially methylated CpG dinucleotide among a larger set of biological samples. The method, and kits for implementation thereof, are useful in applied assays for distinguishing between different stages of development or differentiation of cells belonging to different classes of biological samples.