Genes that could be associated with differentially methylated regions in asthma (mixed-cell analysis) included a small quantity of immunity-related members such as IL27RA (interleukin 27 receptor alpha), IL20 (interleukin 20) and TNF but were overall dominated by small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA) as well as small Cajal body RNA (scaRNA) genes and thereby enriched in the GO term “Cajal body” (Additional file 7). The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is asthma.