Project description:Genome-wide DNA methylation profiling of umbilical cord blood buffy coat DNA samples. The Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC array was used to obtain DNA methylation profiles across approximately 850,000 CpGs. Samples included 557 cord blood samples born to obese women in the UPBEAT trial, with and without gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), to determine the association between maternal GDM and hyperglycaemia during pregnancy on the methylation in the infant.
Project description:The effect of pre and periconceptional multiple micronutrient supplementation on methylation of CpG loci within CpG islands associated with 14,000 genes across the human genome has been investigated in the offspring of a cohort of Gambian women participating in a controlled double blinded trial. Methylation levels in placebo and micronutrient supplemented cohorts were compared in genomic DNA from cord blood (35 placebo and 21 micronutrient supplemented) and in circulating blood samples (14 placebo and 9 micronutrient supplemented) drawn from the same cohort at 9 months old. A small number of differentially methylated CpG loci were identified in cord blood (14 in males and 21 in females) and a larger number in the 9 month infant comparison (108 in males and 106 in females). Seven differentially methylated loci in males and 8 in females persisted from cord to infant. These findings indicate that micronutrient supplementation pre-conception or early in embryonic development is potentially associated with programming of gene activity at birth, which is maintained into early infanthood. Strikingly, the loci affected by micronutrient supplementation differed between males and females, with no shared changes in cord blood and only 5 shared changes at 9 months. Additionally, a large number of CpG loci showed variation in methylation level when comparing 9-month samples to cord blood samples. These postnatal changes were more consistent between sexes, with 85% of female alterations being found as a subset of male changes in the placebo cohort and 62% of the female changes shared with males in the supplemented cohort. Taken together, the results suggest that there is a core developmental program shared between the sexes that is unaffected by nutrient supplementation, but that there are also sex-specific developmental changes which are altered under conditions of micronutrient supplementation and deficiency. Bisulphite converted DNA from 59 cord (36 placebo and 23 treated) and 25 infant peripheral blood (15 placebo and 10 treated) samples were hybridised to the Illumina Infinium 27k Human Methylation Beadchip v1.2. (For further analysis, five were excluded during quality control leaving 56 cord (35 placebo and 21 treated) and 23 infant peripheral blood (14 placebo and 9 treated) samples. Full data set of 84 samples were submitted to GEO)
Project description:MLL-r infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has largely unclear oncogenesis. It has been shown unrelated to copy number change or mutations in the tyrosine kinome. We therefore, explored the possible role of genome wide CpG island hypermethylation in MLL-r infant ALL. We employed the HpaII-tiny fragment Enrichment by Ligation-mediated PCR (HELP) assay to examine MLL-r infant leukemia samples (n=5), other common childhood ALL (n=5) and normals (n=5). We then investigated biological correlation and the therapeutic potential of 5-aza-2’-deoxycytidine (decitabine). Analysis of the HELP assay showed both tight clustering of samples into their biological groups and that MLL-r infant leukemia was globally and comparatively hypermethylated. Further, a majority of genes chosen for analysis from the HELP assay were silenced or under-expressed. MLL-r cell lines showed dose and time-dependent cell kill when treated with decitabine and most down-regulated genes showed increase in expression. This was not seen in the MLL-wt cell line. For the re-expressed genes, methylation specific PCR confirmed preferential promoter methylation in MLL-r samples. Together, this suggests that methylation signatures are unique in pediatric ALL, that promoter hypermethylation may play a significant role in MLL-r infant leukemogenesis, that this can be reversed and demethylating agents may be a potential new therapeutic option in infant leukemia. Keywords: DNA methylation profiling Direct comparison of DNA methylation in leukemic blasts from 5 infants with MLL-r ALL with 5 children with other common types of ALL and 5 normal samples consisting of CD34+ selected cord blood cells (n=3) and CD19+ selected cord blood cells (n=2)
Project description:Background: Maternal smoking during pregnancy is a major risk factor for adverse health outcomes. The main objective of the study was to assess the impact of in utero tobacco exposure on DNA methylation in children born at term with appropriate weight at birth. Methods: Twenty mother-newborn dyads, after uncomplicated pregnancies, in the absence of perinatal illness were included. All mothers were healthy with no cardiovascular risk factors, except for the associated risks among those mothers who smoked. Umbilical cord blood (for methylation arrays) and maternal peripheral venous blood (for cotine level measurement) were collected and an epigenome-wide association study was performed using a 450K epigenome-wide scan (Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation 450BeadChip) with adjustment to normalize the DNA methylation for data cell variability in whole blood. Results: The maternal plasmatic cotinine levels ranged from 10.70-115.40 ng/ml in the exposed group to 0-0.59 ng/ml in the non-exposed group. After adjusting for multiple comparisons in 427102 probes, statistically significant differences for 31 CpG sites, associated to 25 genes were observed. There was a greater than expected proportion of statistically-significant loci located in CpG islands (FisherM-bM-^@M-^Ys exact test, p=0.029) and of those CpG islands, 90.3% exhibit higher methylation levels in the exposed group. The most striking and significant CpG site, cg05727225, is located in the chromosome 11p15.4, within the adrenomedullin gene. Conclusions: In utero tobacco exposure, even in the absence of fetal growth restriction, may alter the epigenome, contributing to global DNA hypomethylation. Therefore, DNA status can be used as a biomarker of prenatal insults. Considering the possibility to reverse epigenetic modifications, a window of opportunity exists to change the programmed chronic disease. Twenty mother-newborn dyads, after uncomplicated pregnancies, in the absence of perinatal illness were included. All mothers were healthy with no cardiovascular risk factors, except for the associated risks among those mothers who smoked. Umbilical cord blood were collected and an epigenome-wide association study was performed using a 450K epigenome-wide scan (Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation 450BeadChip) with adjustment to normalize the DNA methylation for data cell variability in whole blood.
Project description:The effect of pre and periconceptional multiple micronutrient supplementation on methylation of CpG loci within CpG islands associated with 14,000 genes across the human genome has been investigated in the offspring of a cohort of Gambian women participating in a controlled double blinded trial. Methylation levels in placebo and micronutrient supplemented cohorts were compared in genomic DNA from cord blood (35 placebo and 21 micronutrient supplemented) and in circulating blood samples (14 placebo and 9 micronutrient supplemented) drawn from the same cohort at 9 months old. A small number of differentially methylated CpG loci were identified in cord blood (14 in males and 21 in females) and a larger number in the 9 month infant comparison (108 in males and 106 in females). Seven differentially methylated loci in males and 8 in females persisted from cord to infant. These findings indicate that micronutrient supplementation pre-conception or early in embryonic development is potentially associated with programming of gene activity at birth, which is maintained into early infanthood. Strikingly, the loci affected by micronutrient supplementation differed between males and females, with no shared changes in cord blood and only 5 shared changes at 9 months. Additionally, a large number of CpG loci showed variation in methylation level when comparing 9-month samples to cord blood samples. These postnatal changes were more consistent between sexes, with 85% of female alterations being found as a subset of male changes in the placebo cohort and 62% of the female changes shared with males in the supplemented cohort. Taken together, the results suggest that there is a core developmental program shared between the sexes that is unaffected by nutrient supplementation, but that there are also sex-specific developmental changes which are altered under conditions of micronutrient supplementation and deficiency.
Project description:Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have detrimental intergenerational health consequences; however, mechanisms require elucidation. We test the associations among mothers’ ACEs, mothers’ prenatal anxiety and depression symptoms, and DNA methylation (DNAm) in maternal prenatal blood and infant umbilical cord blood. Maternal ACE score was associated with higher prenatal depression (β= 0.84, p=0.004) and anxiety (β = 1.36, p=0.02) symptoms and lower rates of secure attachment at 3 months (OR= 0.52 p=0.003). Prenatal depression (OR= 0.92, p=0.194) and anxiety (OR= 0.94, p= 0.072) were not correlated with infant attachment. Results from the regression of epigenetic age acceleration in maternal prenatal blood on maternal ACE score were: β =0.49, p= 0.09. Regressing epigenetic age in cord blood on prenatal depression yielded: β = -0.10, p=0.07 and on anxiety yielded β =-0.05, p=0.07. No CMR was associated with maternal ACE score at the FDR-corrected p<.05 level. ACE-associated DNAm variation was enriched for genes related to nervous and reproductive systems development. ACEs may affect the next generation through maternal mental health, infant attachment, and DNAm.
Project description:Genome wide DNA methylation profiling of umbilical cord blood DNA samples. The Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC array was used to obtain DNA methylation profiles across approximately 850,000 CpGs. Samples included 470 cord blood samples from infants born to women in the Southampton Women's Survery (SWS) cohort, to examine the association between DNA methylation in the infant and aspects of health and disease in early and life and childhood.
Project description:Genomewide methylation profiles from three tissues (cord blood, placenta, venous blood) derived from 24 mother-child dyads. Data was assayed with the Illumina HumanMethylation 450K Beacdchip and processed with Illumina's GenomeStudio V2011.1 Methylation Module v1.9.0
Project description:Genomewide methylation profiles from three tissues (cord blood, placenta, venous blood) derived from 24 mother-child dyads. Data was assayed with the Illumina HumanMethylation 450K Beacdchip and processed with Illumina's GenomeStudio V2011.1 Methylation Module v1.9.0 Bisulfite converted DNA from three tissues derived from 24 dyads, totalling 72 samples, were hybridized to the Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChips following the manufacturerÕs specifications.
Project description:Maternal obesity during pregnancy is associated with neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) risk. We utilized integrative multi-omics to examine maternal obesity effects on offspring neurodevelopment in rhesus macaques by comparison to lean controls and two interventions. Differentially methylated regions (DMRs) from longitudinal maternal blood-derived cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) significantly overlapped with DMRs from infant brain. The DMRs were enriched for neurodevelopmental functions, methylation-sensitive developmental transcription factor motifs, and human NDD DMRs identified from brain and placenta. Brain and cffDNA methylation levels from a large region overlapping mir-663 correlated with maternal obesity, metabolic and immune markers, and infant behavior. A DUX4 hippocampal co-methylation network correlated with maternal obesity, infant behavior, infant hippocampal lipidomic and metabolomic profiles, and maternal blood measurements of DUX4 cffDNA methylation, cytokines, and metabolites. We conclude that in this model, maternal obesity was associated with changes in the infant brain and behavior, and these differences were detectable in pregnancy through integrative analyses of cffDNA methylation with immune and metabolic factors.