DNA methylation profile of liver tissue in end-stage cholestatic liver disease.

Aims: In this methylome-wide association study of cholestatic liver diseases (primary sclerosing cholangitis and primary biliary cholangitis), the authors aimed to elucidate changes in methylome and pathway enrichment to identify candidate genes. Patients & methods: Reduced representation bisulfite sequencing was performed on liver tissue from 58 patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (n = 13), primary biliary cholangitis (n = 20), alcoholic liver disease (n = 21) and live liver donors (n = 4). Pathway enrichment and network analysis were used to explore key genes/pathways.

Results

Both cholestatic liver diseases were characterized by global hypomethylation, with pathway enrichment demonstrating distinct genes and pathways associated with the methylome.

Conclusions

This novel study demonstrated that differential methylation in cholestatic liver disease was associated with unique pathways, suggesting it may drive disease pathogenesis.