Association of Tissue-Specific DNA Methylation Alterations with α-Thalassemia Southeast Asian Deletion.

In the wild-type allele, DNA methylation levels of 10 consecutive CpG sites adjacent to the upstream 5'-breakpoint of α-thalassemia Southeast Asian (SEA) deletion are not different between placenta and leukocytes. However, no previous study has reported the map of DNA methylation in the SEA allele. This report aims to show that the SEA mutation is associated with DNA methylation changes, resulting in differential methylation between placenta and leukocytes.