RASAL1 and renal fibrosis: We focused on Rasal1 methylation because we previously identified RASAL1 (encoding for RASAL1, synonym Ras-GAP-like protein, and inhibitor of Ras-GTP) to be selectively methylated in fibrotic kidney biopsies utilizing a genome-wide methylation screen and we verified that Rasal1 promoter CpG island methylation correlated with degree of fibrosis in murine models of renal fibrosis (including UUO and folic acid-induced nephropathy) as well as in renal biopsies (Bechtel et al., 2010, Tampe et al., 2014).