The intergenerational association of epigenetic modifications between mothers and offspring, from birth to adolescence

IF 2.2 3区医学 Q2 ECONOMICS

Economics & Human Biology Pub Date : 2025-06-04 DOI:10.1016/j.ehb.2025.101509

Chiara Costi , Giorgia Menta , Giovanni Fiorito , Conchita D’Ambrosio

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation (DNAm), have an important role in human disease development, with early DNAm patterns potentially influencing health outcomes in later life. In this paper, we examine the intergenerational association of epigenetic mutation load (EML), a biomarker of epigenetic instability, identifying DNAm outliers. Using mother-child dyads from a UK-based cohort study, we examine the intergenerational association of EML at three time points: birth, childhood (mean age 7.5), and adolescence (mean age 17). We find significant associations of maternal EML with offspring EML during childhood and adolescence, while this association is absent at birth. This suggests that shared environment, rather than direct biological transmission, might be playing a larger role in this intergenerational correlation. When looking at the association between own EML, and maternal EML, with early-adulthood outcomes, results suggest that own EML predicts worse cognitive abilities later in life, while maternal EML is not directly associated to offspring’s outcomes.

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从出生到青春期，母亲和子女之间表观遗传修饰的代际关联

表观遗传修饰，如DNA甲基化（DNAm），在人类疾病发展中发挥重要作用，早期的DNA甲基化模式可能影响晚年的健康结果。在本文中，我们研究了表观遗传突变负荷（EML）的代际关联，EML是表观遗传不稳定性的生物标志物，确定了dna异常值。使用来自英国队列研究的母子二人组，我们在三个时间点检查了EML的代际关联：出生、童年（平均年龄7.5岁）和青春期（平均年龄17岁）。我们发现母亲EML与后代EML在童年和青春期有显著的关联，而这种关联在出生时不存在。这表明，共同的环境，而不是直接的生物遗传，可能在这种代际相关性中起着更大的作用。当研究自己的EML和母亲的EML与成年早期结果之间的关系时，结果表明，自己的EML预示着以后生活中更差的认知能力，而母亲的EML与后代的结果没有直接关系。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Economics & Human Biology 医学-公共卫生、环境卫生与职业卫生

CiteScore

4.50

自引率

12.00%

发文量

审稿时长

61 days

期刊介绍： Economics and Human Biology is devoted to the exploration of the effect of socio-economic processes on human beings as biological organisms. Research covered in this (quarterly) interdisciplinary journal is not bound by temporal or geographic limitations.