Maternal Age at Delivery Is Associated with an Epigenetic Signature in Both Newborns and Adults.

ABSTRACT: Offspring of older mothers are at increased risk of adverse birth outcomes, childhood cancers, type 1 diabetes, and neurodevelopmental disorders. The underlying biologic mechanisms for most of these associations remain obscure. One possibility is that maternal aging may produce lasting changes in the epigenetic features of a child's DNA. To test this, we explored the association of mothers' age at pregnancy with methylation in her offspring, using blood samples from 890 Norwegian newborns and measuring DNA methylation at more than 450,000 CpG sites across the genome. We examined replication of a maternal-age finding in an independent group of 1062 Norwegian newborns, and then in 200 US middle-aged women. Older maternal age was significantly associated with reduced methylation at four adjac

SUBMITTER: Markunas CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4934688 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature