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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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Küpers, Leanne K., Salas Díaz, Lucas Andrés, 1980-, Bustamante Pineda, Mariona, Kogevinas, Manolis, Vrijheid, Martine, Sunyer Deu, Jordi, Felix, Janine Frédérique
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/41696
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/41696
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09671-3
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:DNA methylation
Epidemiology
Epigenetics
Paediatric research
Descripción
Sumario: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.