Severe preeclampsia is not associated with significant DNA methylation difference but cell proportion in cord blood
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ABSTRACT: Preeclampsia (PE) is a severe pregnancy complication that threatens maternal and neonatal health and well-being. Previous studies on epigenome-wide association analysis (EWAS) of preeclampsia produced inconsistent results, and one possible explanation is their failure to rigorously adjust for confounders. Here, we calculated the DNA methylation change in cord blood from newborns affected by preeclampsia, using a multi-ethnic cohort from Hawaii populations. We comprehensively adjusted confounders from clinical variables such as maternal age, BMI, parity and estimated the cell proportions, in hope of resolving the conflicting results of preeclampsia’s impact on babies epigenetic-wide profile.We showed that after adjusting cell type proportions and patient clinical characteristics, most of the so-called significant CpG methylation changes associated with severe PE disappear. Rather, the major effect of severe PE on cord blood is through the proportion changes in CD8T and natural killer (NK) cell types. We validated such a lack of CpG methylation changes, using multiple previously published cord blood DNA methylation datasets. Moreover, we found that in additional to severe PE, gestation progression is accompanied by significant proportion changes in several cell types, such as granulocyte, nRBC, CD8T, and B cells. In summary, our study shows that the previously reported significantly differentially methylated patterns are actually artifacts due to confounding of cell type heterogeneity and clinical factors such as gestational age. Severe preeclampsia is not associated with significant DNA methylation changes but cell proportion changes. This finding alerting the scientific rigor needed in EWAS.
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE299721 | GEO | 2025/12/05
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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