Epigenome Datasets of Type 2 Diabetes from Human Primary Cells

Koh In-Uk, Yu Ho-Yeoung, Park Soo-Jung, Kim Bong-Jo
Division of Genome Research, Center for Genome Science, KNIH, KCDC

Background: Genome-wide epigenetic studies in human disease using human primary cells are important to understand how the present state of homogeneous human cells is determined as disease progressed in a whole body condition. Genomic profiling of DNA methylation, RNA expression and modified histone could clarify the molecular mechanism for gene regulation and chromatin structures in human cells.
Current status: Korea National Institute of Health (KNIH) has conducted the Korean Epigenome Project (KEP) on complex diseases of Koreans, joining as a partner of the International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC) to complete >1000 reference epigenomes of cell lines or primary cells derived from human subjects. We reviewed current progress in the development of on the reference epigenome datasets of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D)-related primary cells in Koreans and recent trends in epigenome studies of human primary cells worldwide.
Future perspectives: The establishment of the epigenome datasets for human primary cells and epigenomic studies of complex diseases are interdisciplinary and require joint efforts by clinicians, experimentalists, and bioinformaticians. The data productions on disease-related primary cell epigenome by KEP is expected to play pivotal roles as resources for the identification of novel targets for therapeutic interventions.