Immediate and durable effects of maternal tobacco consumption alter placental DNA methylation in enhancer and imprinted gene-containing regions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Although exposure to cigarette smoking during pregnancy has been associated with alterations of DNA methylation in the cord blood or placental cells, whether such exposure before pregnancy could induce epigenetic alterations in the placenta of former smokers has never been investigated.

Methods

Our approach combined the analysis of placenta epigenomic (ENCODE) data with newly generated DNA methylation data obtained from 568 pregnant women, the largest cohort to date, either actively smoking during their pregnancy or formerly exposed to tobacco smoking.

Results

This strategy resulted in several major findings. First, among the 203 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) identified by the epigenome-wide association study, 152 showed "reversible" alterations

SUBMITTER: Rousseaux S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7542140 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature