Methylation Status of Alu and LINE-1 Interspersed Repetitive Sequences in Behcet's Disease Patients

Behcet's Disease (BD) is a multisystem chronic inflammatory disease. The pathology is believed to involve both genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. Hypomethylation leading to activation of interspersed repetitive sequences (IRSs) such as LINE-1 and Alu contributes to the pathologies of autoimmune diseases and cancer. Herein, the epigenetic changes of IRSs in BD were evaluated using combined bisulfite restriction analysis-interspersed repetitive sequences (COBRA-IRS). DNA from neutrophils and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of BD patients with ocular involvement that were in active or inactive states and healthy controls were used to analyze LINE-1 and Alu methylation levels. For Alu sequences, significant differences were observed in the frequency of (u)C(u)C alleles between PBMCs of patients and controls (p = 0.03), and between inactive patients and controls (p = 0.03). For neutrophils, the frequency of (u)C(u)C was significantly higher between patients and controls (p = 0.006) and between inactive patients and controls (p = 0.002). The partial methylation ((u)C(m)C + (m)C(u)C) frequencies of Alu between inactive patients and control samples also differed (p = 0.02). No statistically significant differences for LINE-1 were detected. Thus, changes in the methylation level of IRS elements might contribute to the pathogenesis of BD. The role of Alu transcripts in BD should be investigated further.