ArticleNature communications2018
Comprehensive human cell-type methylation atlas reveals origins of circulating cell-free DNA in health and disease.
Article in Nature communications, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 660 papers.
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Who cites it
660 citing papers in PubMed, 1,006 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Cadonilimab plus chemotherapy as first-line treatment in PD-L1-negative advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a phase II clinical trial.Nature communications · 2026Trial
- Neoadjuvant Pembrolizumab in Stages I-III Deficient Mismatch Repair Colon Cancer: A Clinical Trial.Annals of surgery · 2026Trial
- Kinetics of cell-free DNA in response to exogenous and exertional heating in healthy young men.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Trial
- A multi-analyte blood test for acute spinal cord injury.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2025Trial
- Whole-genome DNA methylation analysis reveals distinct subtype characteristics in epithelial ovarian cancer.Cancer gene therapy · 2026Article
- Reappraising the topology of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal blood toward improved prenatal genetic diagnostics.Science advances · 2026Review
- Multiparametric profiling of plasma cell-free nucleic acids in nonagenarians and centenarians highlights age-related differences associated with longevity.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Rutin (quercetin-3-rutinoside) administered orally after experimental Bothrops jararaca envenomation prevents hemostatic, inflammatory and hemorrhagic disturbances.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Towards liquid biopsy-based analysis of antitumour immunity.Nature reviews. Clinical oncology · 2026Review
- Plasma nucleosome profiling reports on tumor burden and molecular subtypes in small cell lung cancer.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- Review
- Epigenetic Liquid Biopsy Enables Universal Mutation-Agnostic Molecular Surveillance for High-Risk Neuroblastoma.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2026Article
- Recurrent mechanisms of biallelic epigenetic inactivation reveal new putative tumour suppressor genes in prostate cancer.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Circulating Cell-Free DNA Methylation Profiling Enables Detection, Distinction, and Estrogen Receptor Status Classification of Advanced Breast Cancer.Cancer research · 2026Article
- Advancing the applications of liquid biopsies in oncology.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Article
- Pattools‑implemented methylation vector analysis reveals aberrant subtype‑specific methylation in lung cancer across tissue and plasma cfDNA.Clinical and translational medicine · 2026Article
- Age-associated epigenomic heterogeneity in papillary tumors of the pineal region: a multicenter YoungNOA investigation.Acta neuropathologica communications · 2026Article
- Epigenetic Profiling for Early Detection and Treatment Response Monitoring in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Protocol for a Prospective Translational Biomarker Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
600 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
23 authors at 7 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Methylation patterns of circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) contain rich information about recent cell death events in the body. Here, we present an approach for unbiased determination of the tissue origins of cfDNA, using a reference methylation atlas of 25 human tissues and cell types. The method is validated using in silico simulations as well as in vitro mixes of DNA from different tissue sources at known proportions. We show that plasma cfDNA of healthy donors originates from white blood cells (55%), erythrocyte progenitors (30%), vascular endothelial cells (10%) and hepatocytes (1%). Deconvolution of cfDNA from patients reveals tissue contributions that agree with clinical findings in sepsis, islet transplantation, cancer of the colon, lung, breast and prostate, and cancer of unknown primary. We propose a procedure which can be easily adapted to study the cellular contributors to cfDNA in many settings, opening a broad window into healthy and pathologic human tissue dynamics.
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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 OpenQuestion graph.