ArticleArthritis research & therapy2026
Sjögren's patient subgroups identified through whole genome DNA methylation profiling.
Article in Arthritis research & therapy, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Correction: Sjögren's patient subgroups identified through whole genome DNA methylation profiling.Arthritis research & therapy · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveSjögren’s disease (SjD) is a heterogeneous autoimmune disorder characterized by lymphocytic infiltration of exocrine glands resulting in severe oral and ocular dryness. Previous published work showed DNA methylation (DNAm) can distinguish SjD case subgroups based on clinical features; however, studies used small samples and did not adjust for cellular heterogeneity in labial salivary glands (LSGs). Our objectives were to: (1) identify DNAm clusters from LSGs; (2) investigate cluster clinical characteristics; and (3) identify differential methylation between SjD case subgroups to further understand biological pathways.
methodsWe identified clinically meaningful subgroups of SjD through hierarchical clustering of DNAm embeddings from a variational autoencoder (VAE) of LSGs, which allows for a low dimensional representation of the high dimensional methylation data. LSGs from 1,059 SjD cases (n = 592) and symptomatic non-cases (n = 467) were profiled using the Illumina HumanMethylationEPIC BeadChip, and cell-type proportions were estimated using a solid-tissue reference.
resultsParticipants clustered into subgroups with differential SjD features and proportions of predicted cell-types. Comparison of SjD cases within distinct clusters showed evidence for differential methylation in each cell-type. The largest number of differences between subgroups occurred in epithelial and B-cells and were in genes and pathways with relevance to disease pathogenesis. In B-cells, methylation within NR2F2, previously reported to be differentially expressed in lacrimal glands of SjD mouse models, and NDRG2, which increases saliva production in estrogen deficient rats, distinguished subgroups with different clinical manifestations. Additional candidates of interest identified in epithelial and B-cells from SjD cases include genes previously implicated in systemic lupus erythematosus.
conclusionThese findings provide insight into the powerful link between epigenetics and clinical heterogeneity in SjD and contribute to classification of important patient subgroups.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.