Gestational diabetes & diabetes in pregnancy
Maternal obesity and gestational diabetes reprogram the methylome of offspring beyond birth by inducing epigenetic signatures in metabolic and developmental pathways
Authors' conclusion
Our observations highlight the first six months of development as being the most crucial for epigenetic remodelling. Furthermore, our results support the existence of systemic intrauterine foetal programming linked to obesity and gestational diabetes that affects the childhood methylome beyond birth, which involves alterations related to metabolic pathways, and which may interact with ordinary postnatal development programmes.
Study context
- Population
- Children born to mothers with obesity or obesity with GDM, and healthy controls; blood samples at 0, 6 and 12 months90 measurements
- Participants
- 26 vs 13
- Exposure
- Children of mothers with obesity or obesity with GDM vs healthy controls
- Obesity or obesity with GDMn = 26
- Healthy controlsn = 13reference
- Outcome
- DNA methylation (>770,000 CpG sites)
- Follow-up
- 0, 6 and 12 months
Methodological detailspaediatric longitudinal cohort, genome-wide DNA methylation (Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip), cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses
- Paediatric longitudinal cohort
- Genome-wide DNA methylation (Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip)
- Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- Abundant DNA methylation changes during development from birth to 6 months and, to a lesser extent, up to 12 months
- DNA methylation biomarkers maintained across the first year discriminated children of mothers with obesity or obesity with GDM
- Enrichment analyses suggested signatures in fatty acid metabolism, postnatal development and mitochondrial bioenergetics genes (CPT1B, SLC38A4, SLC35F3, FN3K)
- Evidence of interaction between developmental DNA methylation changes and maternal metabolic condition
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Original publication
Maternal obesity and gestational diabetes reprogram the methylome of offspring beyond birth by inducing epigenetic signatures in metabolic and developmental pathways. Cardiovasc Diabetol. Published 4 March 2023. doi:10.
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