Abstract
Background
There is a growing body of evidence that epigenetic changes including DNA methylation influence the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and its microvascular complications. We conducted a methylome-wide association study (MWAS) to identify differentially methylated sites (DMSs) of T2D and diabetic kidney disease (DKD) in a Korean population.
Methods
We performed an MWAS in 232 participants with T2D and 197 non-diabetic controls with Illumina EPIC bead chip using peripheral blood leukocytes. T2D group was subdivided into 87 DKD cases and 80 non-DKD controls. Additional 819 individuals from two population-based cohorts were used to investigate the association of identified DMSs with quantitative metabolic phenotypes. Mendelian randomization (MR) approach was applied to evaluate the causal effect of metabolic phenotypes on identified DMSs.
Results
We identified eight DMSs (each at BMP8A, NBPF20, STX18, ZNF365, CPT1A, and TRIM37, and two at TXNIP) which were significantly associated with the risk of T2D (P < 9.0×10 -8), including three that were previously known (DMSs in TXNIP and CPT1A). We also identified three DMSs (in COMMD1, TMOD1, and FHOD1) associated with DKD. With our limited sample size, we were not able to observe a significant overlap between DMSs of T2D and DKD. DMSs in TXNIP and CTP1A were associated with fasting glucose and HbA1c. In MR analysis, fasting glucose was causally associated with DMS in CPT1A.
Conclusions
In an East Asian population, we identified eight DMSs, including five novel CpG loci, associated with T2D and three DMSs associated with DKD at methylome-wide statistical significance.