Integrated Inflammatory and Epigenetic Signatures in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Reveal Novel Mechanisms of Valvular Heart Disease-Associated Atrial Fibrillation
Journal: medRxiv
Year: 2026

Background The molecular drivers distinguishing valvular heart disease-associated atrial fibrillation (VHD-AF) from other AF etiologies remain poorly defined, with prior transcriptomic studies largely focused on non-valvular AF. Methods We performed RNA sequencing on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 15 patients with VHD-AF and 15 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Bioinformatic analyses identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs), enriched pathways, and protein-protein in