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Meta-Analysis
. 2019 May;127(5):57012.
doi: 10.1289/EHP4522. Epub 2019 May 31.

Prenatal Particulate Air Pollution and DNA Methylation in Newborns: An Epigenome-Wide Meta-Analysis

Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Prenatal Particulate Air Pollution and DNA Methylation in Newborns: An Epigenome-Wide Meta-Analysis

Olena Gruzieva et al. Environ Health Perspect. 2019 May.

Abstract

Background: Prenatal exposure to air pollution has been associated with childhood respiratory disease and other adverse outcomes. Epigenetics is a suggested link between exposures and health outcomes.

Objectives: We aimed to investigate associations between prenatal exposure to particulate matter (PM) with diameter [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]) or [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]) and DNA methylation in newborns and children.

Methods: We meta-analyzed associations between exposure to [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]) and [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]) at maternal home addresses during pregnancy and newborn DNA methylation assessed by Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450K BeadChip in nine European and American studies, with replication in 688 independent newborns and look-up analyses in 2,118 older children. We used two approaches, one focusing on single cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites and another on differentially methylated regions (DMRs). We also related PM exposures to blood mRNA expression.

Results: Six CpGs were significantly associated [false discovery rate (FDR) [Formula: see text]] with prenatal [Formula: see text] and 14 with [Formula: see text] exposure. Two of the [Formula: see text] CpGs mapped to FAM13A (cg00905156) and NOTCH4 (cg06849931) previously associated with lung function and asthma. Although these associations did not replicate in the smaller newborn sample, both CpGs were significant ([Formula: see text]) in 7- to 9-y-olds. For cg06849931, however, the direction of the association was inconsistent. Concurrent [Formula: see text] exposure was associated with a significantly higher NOTCH4 expression at age 16 y. We also identified several DMRs associated with either prenatal [Formula: see text] and or [Formula: see text] exposure, of which two [Formula: see text] DMRs, including H19 and MARCH11, replicated in newborns.

Conclusions: Several differentially methylated CpGs and DMRs associated with prenatal PM exposure were identified in newborns, with annotation to genes previously implicated in lung-related outcomes. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4522.

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Figures

Figure 1 A and B are Manhattan plots plotting negative log sub 10 with p values ranging between 0 and 8 (y-axis) across chromosome (from 1 to 22) (x-axis) for prenatal PM sub 10 and prenatal PM sub 2.5, respectively.
Figure 1.
Manhattan plot for epigenome-wide meta-analysis of the association between (A) prenatal PM10 (n=1,949) and (B) prenatal PM2.5 exposure (n=1,551) and cord blood DNA methylation. Note: The solid horizontal line corresponds to an FDR rate of 0.05. Manhattan plot for PM10: Six CpGs were considered statistically significant using FDR correction (red squares): cg15082635 in GNB2L1;SNORD96A, cg20340716 in USP43, cg00905156 in FAM13A, cg24127244 in SRPRB, cg06849931 in NOTCH4, and cg18640183 in P4HA2. Manhattan plot for PM2.5: Fourteen CpGs were considered statistically significant using FDR correction (red squares): cg16811875 in PLXNA4, cg12193649 in ZNF705A, cg11886880 2,5  kb upstream of C14orf2, cg16253537 in FNIP1, cg12044654 in COL22A1, cg19120073 in TMCO3, cg05479174 in SFRS8, cg06846669 8.1  kb downstream of NEUROG1, cg23270359 in MRI1, cg01011943 in PSG5, cg00348551 in C7orf50, cg24709511 1,1  kb downstream of MORN1, cg22038738 in PLAT, and cg02236896 in ZNF695.

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