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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Caroline Relton
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Background: Evidence suggests that in utero exposure to undernutrition and overnutrition might affect adiposity in later life. Epigenetic modification is suggested as a plausible mediating mechanism.Methods: We used multivariable linear regression and a negative control design to examine offspring epigenome-wide DNA methylation in relation to maternal and offspring adiposity in 1018 participants.Results: Compared with neonatal offspring of normal weight mothers, 28 and 1621 CpG sites were differentially methylated in offspring of obese and underweight mothers, respectively [false discovert rate (FDR)-corrected P-value<0.05), with no overlap in the sites that maternal obesity and underweight relate to. A positive association, where higher methylation is associated with a body mass index (BMI) outside the normal range, was seen at 78.6% of the sites associated with obesity and 87.9% of the sites associated with underweight. Associations of maternal obesity with offspring methylation were stronger than associations of paternal obesity, supporting an intrauterine mechanism. There were no consistent associations of gestational weight gain with offspring DNA methylation. In general, sites that were hypermethylated in association with maternal obesity or hypomethylated in association with maternal underweight tended to be positively associated with offspring adiposity, and sites hypomethylated in association with maternal obesity or hypermethylated in association with maternal underweight tended to be inversely associated with offspring adiposity.Conclusions: Our data suggest that both maternal obesity and, to a larger degree, underweight affect the neonatal epigenome via an intrauterine mechanism, but weight gain during pregnancy has little effect. We found some evidence that associations of maternal underweight with lower offspring adiposity and maternal obesity with greater offspring adiposity may be mediated via increased DNA methylation.
Author(s): Sharp GC, Lawlor DA, Richmond RC, Fraser A, Simpkin A, Suderman M, Shihab HA, Lyttleton O, McArdle W, Ring SM, Gaunt TR, Smith GD, Relton CL
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: International Journal of Epidemiology
Year: 2015
Volume: 44
Issue: 4
Pages: 1288-1304
Print publication date: 01/08/2015
Online publication date: 08/04/2015
Acceptance date: 10/03/2015
Date deposited: 05/04/2016
ISSN (print): 0300-5771
ISSN (electronic): 1464-3685
Publisher: Oxford University Press
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyv042
DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyv042
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