Associations between maternal risk factors of adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes and the offspring epigenetic clock of gestational age at birth

Clinical Epigenetics

Rebecca M. Reynolds¹  Michael S. Kobor²  Meaghan J. Jones²  Darina Czamara³  Elisabeth B. Binder³  Anna K. Knight⁴  Alicia K. Smith⁴  Esa Hämäläinen⁵  Jari Lahti⁶  Anna Suarez⁶  Katri Räikkönen⁶  Polina Girchenko⁶  Eero Kajantie⁷  Pia M. Villa⁸  Hannele Laivuori⁸ 

[1] BHF Centre for Cardiovascular Science, Queen’s Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh;Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, BC Children’s Hospital and University of British Columbia;Department of Translational Research in Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry;Genetics and Molecular Biology Program, Emory University;HUSLAB and Department of Clinical Chemistry, Helsinki University Hospital;Institute of Behavioral Sciences, University of Helsinki;National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki and Oulu;Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital Helsinki;

关键词: Aging;    Cord blood methylation;    Epigenetic clock;    Gestational age;    Prenatal programming;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13148-017-0349-z

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Background A recent study has shown that it is possible to accurately estimate gestational age (GA) at birth from the DNA methylation (DNAm) of fetal umbilical cord blood/newborn blood spots. This DNAm GA predictor may provide additional information relevant to developmental stage. In 814 mother-neonate pairs, we evaluated the associations between DNAm GA and a number of maternal and offspring characteristics. These characteristics reflect prenatal environmental adversity and are expected to influence newborn developmental stage. Results DNAm GA acceleration (GAA; i.e., older DNAm GA than chronological GA) of the offspring at birth was associated with maternal age of over 40 years at delivery, pre-eclampsia and fetal demise in a previous pregnancy, maternal pre-eclampsia and treatment with antenatal betamethasone in the index pregnancy, lower neonatal birth size, lower 1-min Apgar score, and female sex. DNAm GA deceleration (GAD; i.e., younger DNAm GA than chronological GA) of the offspring at birth was associated with insulin-treated gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in a previous pregnancy and Sjögren’s syndrome. These findings were more accentuated when the DNAm GA calculation was based on the raw difference between DNAm GA and GA than on the residual from the linear regression of DNAm GA on GA. Conclusions Our findings show that variations in the DNAm GA of the offspring at birth are associated with a number of maternal and offspring characteristics known to reflect exposure to prenatal environmental adversity. Future studies should be aimed at determining if this biological variation is predictive of developmental adversity.

【 授权许可】

Unknown