Contrasting the effects of intra-uterine smoking and one-carbon micronutrient exposures on offspring DNA methylation

Rebecca Richmond, Bonnie R Joubert

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)
302 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Maternal smoking and micronutrient intake during pregnancy are two strong biological candidates for impacting the developing epigenome. The extent to which DNA methylation in offspring is modified by these intrauterine exposures has not been presented in parallel. In this review, we summarize human studies which have investigated genome-wide DNA methylation in the offspring in relation to maternal smoking and one-carbon micronutrient exposure during pregnancy. We contrast the primarily independent efforts for these two categories of exposure, and potential explanations for these differences. We emphasize methodological considerations such as power to detect methylation
signals, exposure assessment, control of sources of variability, causal inference and the role of observed methylation changes in mediating downstream outcomes in the offspring.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)329-345
Number of pages17
JournalEpigenomics
Volume9
Issue number3
Early online date17 Feb 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2017

Research Groups and Themes

  • ICEP

Keywords

  • Epigenome-wide association study (EWAS)
  • DNA methylation
  • maternal smoking
  • micronutrients
  • one-carbon metabolism
  • folate
  • epigenetic epidemiology

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  • (IEU) Epigenetics: Environment, Embodiment & Equality (E4)

    Relton, C. L. (Principal Investigator)

    1/01/1631/12/19

    Project: Research

  • MRC UoB UNITE Unit - Programme 2

    Relton, C. L. (Principal Investigator) & Relton, C. L. (Principal Investigator)

    1/06/1331/03/18

    Project: Research

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