DNA methylation links prenatal smoking exposure to later life health outcomes in offspring.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with adverse offspring health outcomes across their life course. We hypothesize that DNA methylation is a potential mediator of this relationship.

Methods

We examined the association of prenatal maternal smoking with offspring blood DNA methylation in 2821 individuals (age 16 to 48 years) from five prospective birth cohort studies and perform Mendelian randomization and mediation analyses to assess whether methylation markers have causal effects on disease outcomes in the offspring.

Results

We identify 69 differentially methylated CpGs in 36 genomic regions (P value < 1 × 10^-7) associated with exposure to maternal smoking in adolescents and adults. Mendelian randomization analyses provided evidence

SUBMITTER: Wiklund P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6604191 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature