Methylation of SOCS3 promoter. (A) Methylation-specific PCR of the SOCS3 promoter in LGLs and the autologous LGL-depleted PBMCs of 2 representative patients. M: methylated band and U: unmethylated band. (B) Methylation of CpG dinucleotides. The figure reports the methylation pattern in the promoter region of the SOCS3 gene for 1 representative control participant and 2 representative patients. The filled circles indicate methylated CpG dinucleotides, and the empty circles indicate unmethylated dinucleotides. The numbers indicate the CpG dinucleotide position before the start codon. Analysis of the control participants was performed on the sorted CTLs; in the patients, the analysis was performed on the sorted LGLs. The methylation frequency, for each sequenced clone, was calculated as the number of methylated CpG dinucleotides over the total CpG dinucleotides present in the analyzed sequence. The difference in median methylation frequency was similar both in the patients and in the control participants.