Multiomics analyses identified epigenetic modulation of the S100A gene family in Kawasaki disease and their significant involvement in neutrophil transendothelial migration

Background Kawasaki disease (KD) is a prevalent pediatric disease worldwide and can cause coronary artery aneurysm as a severe complication. Typically, DNA methylation is thought to repress the expression of nearby genes. However, the cases in which DNA methylation promotes gene expression have been reported. In addition, globally, to what extent DNA methylation affects gene expression and how it contributes to the pathogenesis of KD are not yet well understood. Methods To address these important biological questions, we enrolled subjects, collected DNA and RNA samples from the subjects’ total white blood cells, and performed DNA methylation (M450K) and gene expression (HTA 2.0) microarray assays. Results By analyzing the variation ratios of CpG beta values (methylation percentage) and gene expression intensities, we first concluded that the CpG markers close (− 1500 bp to + 500 bp) to the transcription start sites had higher variation ratios, reflecting significant regulation capacities. Next, we observed that, globally speaking, gene expression was modestly negatively correlated (correlation rho ≈ − 0.2) with the DNA methylation status of both upstream and downstream CpG markers in the promoter region. Third, we found that specific CpG markers were hypo-methylated in disease samples compared with healthy samples and hyper-methylated in convalescent samples compared with disease samples, promoting and repressing S100A genes’ expressions, respectively. Finally, using an in vitro cell model, we demonstrated that S100A family proteins enhanced leukocyte transendothelial migration in KD. Conclusions This is the first study to integrate genome-wide DNA methylation with gene expression assays in KD and showed that the S100A family plays important roles in the pathogenesis of KD. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13148-018-0557-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.