Icon Legend

This session is not in your schedule.

This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Session: Diet, Body Size, and Diabetes in Pregnancy: Impact on Offspring Metabolic Health (Oral 12)

(OR12-04-23) Epigenetic Signatures in Cord Blood for Early Identification of Obesity Development: Findings From the Boston Birth Cohort

Sunday, July 23, 2023

4:36 PM – 4:48 PM ET

Location: Constitution A

Presenting Author(s)

Anat Yaskolka Meir, RD PhD

Postdoc fellow
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Brighton, Massachusetts, United States

Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Co-Author(s)

TC

Tingyi Cao

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
GW

Guoying Wang, MD, PhD

Assistant Scientist, Department of population, Family, and reproductive health
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
XH

Xiumei Hong, MD, PhD

Assistant Scientist
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
XW

Xiaobin Wang, MD, MPH, ScD

Professor
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
LL

Liming Liang, PhD

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Disclosure(s):

Anat Yaskolka Meir, PhD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Objectives: To examine the associations of overweight or obesity (OWO) trajectories across different age periods from birth to 18 years with differentially methylated CpG sites and gestational methylation age (GAmAge).

Methods: Using data from a US predominantly urban, low-income, multi-ethnic birth cohort with repeated anthropometric measurements from birth to 18 years, we defined four body-mass-index percentiles (BMIPCT) trajectory groups. These groups were described as either stable (consistent OWO: “early OWO”; constant normal weight: “NW”) or non-stable (OWO by year 1 of follow-up: “late OWO”; OWO by year 6 of follow-up: “NW to very late OWO”) BMIPCT. We examine early epigenetic signatures associations with the following age periods: birth-to-1 year, birth-to-2, birth-to-3, birth-to-6, birth-to-10, birth-to-14, and birth-to-18. Cord blood Methylation levels and GAmAge were calculated using Illumina EPIC array.

Results: In an epigenome-wide association study, we found 7 significant hits (FDR < 0.05 for all) across multiple age periods, differentiating between the OWO groups: early OWO vs. NW trajectories (cg03786842 at birth-to-1, cg09287864 at birth-to-6, cg15241084 at birth-to-6 and birth-to-10); late OWO vs. NW to very late OWO trajectories (cg18582997 at birth-to-3, cg24350936 birth-to-14), and late OWO vs. NW trajectories (cg11451801 at birth-to-2). GAmAge was a predictor of long-term obesity, differentiating between children with early OWO and NW trajectories and groups with late or very late OWO development in the age periods of birth-to-1, birth-to-3, birth-to-6, and birth-to-10 (p < 0.05 for all). Birth weight was a mediator for the GAmAge effect on OWO status for specific groups at multiple age periods.

Conclusions: DNA methylation signatures are associated with childhood OWO trajectories and may early detect the onset of OWO. An early assessment of BMIPCT trajectories by these signatures may help identify young children at high risk for obesity later in life.

Funding Sources: The Boston Birth Cohort was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants and by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The leading author was supported by the the Council for Higher Education- Zuckerman support program for outstanding postdoctoral female researchers.