@article{MaierhoferFlunkertOshimaetal.2019, author = {Maierhofer, Anna and Flunkert, Julia and Oshima, Junko and Martin, George M. and Poot, Martin and Nanda, Indrajit and Dittrich, Marcus and M{\"u}ller, Tobias and Haaf, Thomas}, title = {Epigenetic signatures of Werner syndrome occur early in life and are distinct from normal epigenetic aging processes}, series = {Aging Cell}, volume = {18}, journal = {Aging Cell}, doi = {10.1111/acel.12995}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-202733}, pages = {e12995}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Werner Syndrome (WS) is an adult-onset segmental progeroid syndrome. Bisulfite pyrosequencing of repetitive DNA families revealed comparable blood DNA methylation levels between classical (18 WRN-mutant) or atypical WS (3 LMNA-mutant and 3 POLD1-mutant) patients and age- and sex-matched controls. WS was not associated with either age-related accelerated global losses of ALU, LINE1, and α-satellite DNA methylations or gains of rDNA methylation. Single CpG methylation was analyzed with Infinium MethylationEPIC arrays. In a correspondence analysis, atypical WS samples clustered together with the controls and were clearly separated from classical WS, consistent with distinct epigenetic pathologies. In classical WS, we identified 659 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) comprising 3,656 CpG sites and 613 RefSeq genes. The top DMR was located in the HOXA4 promoter. Additional DMR genes included LMNA, POLD1, and 132 genes which have been reported to be differentially expressed in WRN-mutant/depleted cells. DMRs were enriched in genes with molecular functions linked to transcription factor activity and sequence-specific DNA binding to promoters transcribed by RNA polymerase II. We propose that transcriptional misregulation of downstream genes by the absence of WRN protein contributes to the variable premature aging phenotypes of WS. There were no CpG sites showing significant differences in DNA methylation changes with age between WS patients and controls. Genes with both WS- and age-related methylation changes exhibited a constant offset of methylation between WRN-mutant patients and controls across the entire analyzed age range. WS-specific epigenetic signatures occur early in life and do not simply reflect an acceleration of normal epigenetic aging processes.}, language = {en} } @article{MaierhoferFlunkertDittrichetal.2017, author = {Maierhofer, Anna and Flunkert, Julia and Dittrich, Marcus and M{\"u}ller, Tobias and Schindler, Detlev and Nanda, Indrajit and Haaf, Thomas}, title = {Analysis of global DNA methylation changes in primary human fibroblasts in the early phase following X-ray irradiation}, series = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {12}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, number = {5}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0177442}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-170895}, pages = {e0177442}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Epigenetic alterations may contribute to the generation of cancer cells in a multi-step process of tumorigenesis following irradiation of normal body cells. Primary human fibroblasts with intact cell cycle checkpoints were used as a model to test whether X-ray irradiation with 2 and 4 Gray induces direct epigenetic effects (within the first cell cycle) in the exposed cells. ELISA-based fluorometric assays were consistent with slightly reduced global DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation, however the observed between-group differences were usually not significant. Similarly, bisulfite pyrosequencing of interspersed LINE-1 repeats and centromeric α-satellite DNA did not detect significant methylation differences between irradiated and non-irradiated cultures. Methylation of interspersed ALU repeats appeared to be slightly increased (one percentage point; p = 0.01) at 6 h after irradiation with 4 Gy. Single-cell analysis showed comparable variations in repeat methylation among individual cells in both irradiated and control cultures. Radiation-induced changes in global repeat methylation, if any, were much smaller than methylation variation between different fibroblast strains. Interestingly, α-satellite DNA methylation positively correlated with gestational age. Finally, 450K methylation arrays mainly targeting genes and CpG islands were used for global DNA methylation analysis. There were no detectable methylation differences in genic (promoter, 5' UTR, first exon, gene body, 3' UTR) and intergenic regions between irradiated and control fibroblast cultures. Although we cannot exclude minor effects, i.e. on individual CpG sites, collectively our data suggest that global DNA methylation remains rather stable in irradiated normal body cells in the early phase of DNA damage response.}, language = {en} } @article{JanschGuentherWaideretal.2018, author = {Jansch, Charline and G{\"u}nther, Katharina and Waider, Jonas and Ziegler, Georg C. and Forero, Andrea and Kollert, Sina and Svirin, Evgeniy and P{\"u}hringer, Dirk and Kwok, Chee Keong and Ullmann, Reinhard and Maierhofer, Anna and Flunkert, Julia and Haaf, Thomas and Edenhofer, Frank and Lesch, Klaus-Peter}, title = {Generation of a human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line from a 51-year-old female with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) carrying a duplication of SLC2A3}, series = {Stem Cell Research}, volume = {28}, journal = {Stem Cell Research}, doi = {10.1016/j.scr.2018.02.005}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-176654}, pages = {136-140}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Fibroblasts were isolated from a skin biopsy of a clinically diagnosed 51-year-old female attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) patient carrying a duplication of SLC2A3, a gene encoding neuronal glucose transporter-3 (GLUT3). Patient fibroblasts were infected with Sendai virus, a single-stranded RNA virus, to generate transgene-free human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). SLC2A3-D2-iPSCs showed expression of pluripotency-associated markers, were able to differentiate into cells of the three germ layers in vitro and had a normal female karyotype. This in vitro cellular model can be used to study the role of risk genes in the pathogenesis of ADHD, in a patient-specific manner.}, language = {en} }