DVPs
rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, diabetes mellitus, IBD
RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, CANCER, DIABETES MELLITUS, EVENTS, DISEASES
Most epigenome-wide association studies have focused on case-control quantitative differences in DNA methylation at specific sites (DMPs). In the context of complex diseases such as IBD, the absolute differences in mean DNA methylation are often small (<5%), with unclear biologic consequence. There has been interest in measuring DNA methylation variability, or the pattern of variance at these sites. DVPs have been described as heterogeneous outlier events and first described in cancer but increasingly described in complex diseases including T1 diabetes mellitus and rheumatoid arthritis twin studies.