Asthma-associated polymorphisms in 17q12-21 locus modulate methylation and gene expression of GSDMA in naive CD4^+ T cells

The 17q12-21 locus harboring ORMDL sphingolipid biosynthesis regulator 3(ORMDL3)and Gasdermin B(GSDMB)genes exhibits one of the most significant and replicated associations with asthma[MIM:600807](Stein et al.,2018).Several studies explored the complex interactions between SNPs,gene expression and epigenetic modifications at this locus,primarily focusing on the levels of expressed ORMDL3 and GSDMB(Stein et al.,2018).Given that DNA methylation and gene expression signals are cell-type specific(Reinius et al.,2012),isolated materials such as lymphocytes from blood and,to a lesser extent,bronchial epithelial cells from biopsies of bronchi or bronchoalveolar lavages have been used in a number of studies to investigate such interactions(Stein et al.,2018).