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Fig. 5 | Clinical Epigenetics

Fig. 5

From: Nucleated red blood cells impact DNA methylation and expression analyses of cord blood hematopoietic cells

Fig. 5

Selected discordant DM sites between the standard and stringent FACS protocols. At these discordant CpG sites, a given cell type is DM only in one protocol, but not the other. a An example CpG site illustrating contamination of nRBCs with T cells after sorting by standard FACS methods. The nRBCs trend toward T cell DNAm in the standard method, but are hypermethylated (like all other non-T cells) after sorting by the stringent method. b, c Examples of discordant sites in monocytes due to heterotopic cell interactions (b) or epipolymorphisms (c). In b, absolute DNAm in monocytes does not change significantly between the two protocols, but the change in nRBC DNAm with FACS protocol influences whether monocytes are identified as DM. In c, DNAm at the CpG site is likely attributable to genetic variation. This was confirmed by comparing DNAm plotted by cell type (left boxplots) to plotting by individual (right boxplots). DNAm in each individual shows one of three distinct levels of DNAm, presumably depending on the individual’s genotype at the site influencing DNAm

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