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Childhood adversity and DNA methylation in two population-based cohorts

Houtepen, LC; Hardy, R; Maddock, J; Kuh, D; Anderson, EL; Relton, CL; Suderman, MJ; (2018) Childhood adversity and DNA methylation in two population-based cohorts. Translational Psychiatry , 8 , Article 266. 10.1038/s41398-018-0307-3. Green open access

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Abstract

Childhood adversity affects later health, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are unclear. Although there is some evidence from animal models and case-control studies of a role for DNA methylation, evidence from human population-based studies is limited. In two cohorts (mothers from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, ALSPAC, n = 780 and women from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development, NSHD, n = 552), we assessed the association of seven adverse childhood experiences (ACEs: parental physical illness, parental mental illness, parental death, parental separation, suboptimal maternal bonding, childhood illness and child maltreatment) as well as their combination (ACE score) with genome-wide DNA methylation levels measured using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip in peripheral blood at mean age 47 years (ALSPAC) and in buccal cells at age 53 years (NSHD). CpG sites with a genome-wide false discovery rate (FDR) below 0.05 and differentially methylated regions (DMRs) with one-step Šidák correction p-values below 0.05 in each cohort were examined in the other cohort. No individual CpG sites replicated across cohorts. However, nine DMRs replicated across cohorts respectively associated with the ACE score (one region), parental mental illness (two regions), parental physical illness (three regions) and parental death (three regions). These observations indicate that some adverse childhood experiences, notably those related to parental health, may leave imprints on peripheral DNA methylation that persist to mid-life.

Type: Article
Title: Childhood adversity and DNA methylation in two population-based cohorts
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1038/s41398-018-0307-3
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-018-0307-3
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © The Author(s) 2018. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science > Population Science and Experimental Medicine
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science > Population Science and Experimental Medicine > MRC Unit for Lifelong Hlth and Ageing
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10064447
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