Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies in neonates reveals widespread differential DNA methylation associated with birthweight

Birthweight is associated with health outcomes across the life course, DNA methylation may be an underlying mechanism. In this meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies of 8,825 neonates from 24 birth cohorts in the Pregnancy And Childhood Epigenetics Consortium, we find that DNA methylati...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Küpers, Leanne K., Salas Díaz, Lucas Andrés, 1980-, Bustamante Pineda, Mariona, Kogevinas, Manolis, Vrijheid, Martine, Sunyer Deu, Jordi, Felix, Janine Frédérique
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Recursos:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10230/41696
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/41696
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09671-3
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:DNA methylation
Epidemiology
Epigenetics
Paediatric research
Descrição
Resumo:Birthweight is associated with health outcomes across the life course, DNA methylation may be an underlying mechanism. In this meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies of 8,825 neonates from 24 birth cohorts in the Pregnancy And Childhood Epigenetics Consortium, we find that DNA methylation in neonatal blood is associated with birthweight at 914 sites, with a difference in birthweight ranging from −183 to 178 grams per 10% increase in methylation (PBonferroni < 1.06 x 10−7). In additional analyses in 7,278 participants, <1.3% of birthweight-associated differential methylation is also observed in childhood and adolescence, but not adulthood. Birthweight-related CpGs overlap with some Bonferroni-significant CpGs that were previously reported to be related to maternal smoking (55/914, p = 6.12 x 10−74) and BMI in pregnancy (3/914, p = 1.13x10−3), but not with those related to folate levels in pregnancy. Whether the associations that we observe are causal or explained by confounding or fetal growth influencing DNA methylation (i.e. reverse causality) requires further research.