Chromatin accessibility landscapes of immune cells in rheumatoid arthritis nominate monocytes in disease pathogenesis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic autoimmune disease that involves a variety of cell types. However, how the epigenetic dysregulations of peripheral immune cells contribute to the pathogenesis of RA still remains largely unclear.

Here, we analysed the genome-wide active DNA regulatory elements of four major immune cells, namely monocytes, B cells, CD4⁺ T cells and CD8⁺ T cells, in peripheral blood of RA patients, osteoarthritis (OA) patients and healthy donors using Assay of Transposase Accessible Chromatin with sequencing (ATAC-seq). We found a strong RA-associated chromatin dysregulation signature in monocytes, but no other examined cell types. Moreover, we found that serum C-reactive protein (CRP) can induce the RA-associated chromatin dysregulation in monocytes via in vitro experiments. And the extent of this dysregulation was regulated through the transcription factor FRA2.

Together, our study revealed a CRP-induced pathogenic chromatin dysregulation signature in monocytes from RA patients and predicted the responsible signalling pathway as potential therapeutic targets for the disease.