Preterm AND Epigenetic

Epigenetic age acceleration is a risk factor for chronic diseases of ageing and may reflect aspects of biological ageing. However, few studies have examined epigenetic ageing during the early neonatal period in preterm infants, who are at heightened risk of developmental problems. We examined relationships between neonatal age acceleration, neonatal morbidities, and neurobehavioral domains among very preterm (<30 weeks gestation) infants to characterize whether infants with early morbidities or different neurobehavioral characteristics had accelerated or decelerated epigenetic ageing...

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are exogenous substances widely disseminated both in the environment and in daily-life products which can interfere with the regulation and function of the endocrine system. These substances have gradually entered the food chain, being frequently found in human blood and urine samples. This becomes a particularly serious issue when they reach vulnerable populations such as pregnant women, whose hormones are more unstable and vulnerable to EDCs. The proper formation and activity of the placenta, and therefore embryonic development, may get seriously affected by the presence of these chemicals, augmenting the risk of several pregnancy complications, including intrauterine growth restriction, preterm birth, preeclampsia, and gestational diabetes mellitus, among others...

BACKGROUND: Stress from preterm infant admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is associated with infant and maternal physiologic changes, including endocrine and epigenetic alterations. Little is known about the mechanisms connecting NICU stress to biologic changes, and whether preterm infant and maternal stress are reciprocal. As a preliminary step, feasibility and acceptability of measuring indicators of stress are required. PURPOSE: This study evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of research examining perceptions and biologic markers of stress in premature infant-maternal dyads during and after NICU hospitalization...

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) colonizes the female reproductive tract (FRT) and causes adverse pregnancy outcomes and invasive disease following vertical transmission to the fetus or newborn. Despite this major public health burden, the mechanisms of GBS FRT colonization are understudied. A recent transposon sequencing screen identified GBS factors contributing to vaginal colonization and ascending spread, including a putative DNA-cytosine methyltransferase (Dcm). We constructed a Δ dcm deletion strain and confirmed that dcm contributes to murine FRT colonization...

Increased fossil fuel usage and extreme climate change events have led to global increases in greenhouse gases and particulate matter with 99% of the world's population now breathing polluted air that exceeds the World Health Organization's recommended limits. Pregnant women and neonates with exposure to high levels of air pollutants are at increased risk of adverse health outcomes such as maternal hypertensive disorders, postpartum depression, placental abruption, low birth weight, preterm birth, infant mortality, and adverse lung and respiratory effects...

Evidence is accumulating, both in the US and abroad, of the apparent serious health impacts of various environmental exposures tied to climate change. High ambient temperature, or heat, is a worsening global health risk. Heat risk is affected by many factors such as the magnitude, duration, and timing of exposure - such as specific, critical windows during pregnancy. This article focuses on the association of heat with both adverse pregnancy and newborn health outcomes. Regarding pregnancy, studies link heat and preterm birth, low birth weight and stillbirth...

Polygenic embryo screening (PES) and its derivate the Embryo Health Score (EHS) have generated interest in both infertile and fertile populations due to their potential ability to select embryos with a reduced risk of disease and improved long-term health outcomes. Concerns have been raised regarding the potential harms of IVF itself, including possible epigenetic changes that may affect the health of the offspring in late adulthood, which are not fully captured in the EHS calculation. Knowledge of the potential impacts of the trophectoderm biopsy, which is a key component of the PES procedure, on the offsprings' health is limited by the heterogeneity of the population characteristics used in the published studies...

Obesity is a significant health concern worldwide and is associated with numerous health complications, including placental dysfunction during pregnancy. Placental dysfunction can lead to adverse outcomes for both the mother and the foetus, such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, preterm birth, and foetal growth restriction. Studies have shown that maternal obesity can lead to placental dysfunction through various mechanisms, including chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and dysregulation of metabolic pathways...

Background: A growing body of literature has reported molecular and histological changes in the human placenta in association with preeclampsia (PE). Placental DNA methylation (DNAme) and transcriptomic patterns have revealed molecular subgroups of PE that are associated with placental histopathology and clinical phenotypes of the disease. However, the clinical and molecular heterogeneity of PE both across and within subtypes complicates the study of this disease. PE is most strongly associated with placental pathology and adverse fetal and maternal outcomes when it develops early in pregnancy...

Background: 'Epigenetic clocks' have been developed to accurately predict chronologic gestational age and have been associated with child health outcomes in prior work. Methods: We meta-analysed results from four prospective U.S cohorts investigating the association between epigenetic age acceleration estimated using blood DNA methylation collected at birth and preschool age Childhood Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores. Results: Epigenetic ageing was not significantly associated with CBCL total problem scores (β = 0...

BACKGROUND: Epigenetic clocks use CpG DNA methylation to estimate biological age. Acceleration is associated with cancer, heart disease, and shorter life span. Few studies evaluate DNA methylation age and pregnancy outcomes. AgeAccelGrim is a novel epigenetic clock that combines 7 DNA methylation components. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine whether maternal biological aging (via AgeAccelGrim) is associated with early preterm birth. STUDY DESIGN: A prospective cohort of patients with singleton pregnancies and at high risk of spontaneous preterm birth delivering at a tertiary university hospital were included in this study...

The advantages of human milk feeding, especially in preterm babies, are well recognized. Infants' feeding with breast milk lowers the likelihood of developing a diverse range of non-communicable diseases later in life and it is also associated with improved neurodevelopmental outcomes. Although the precise mechanisms through which human milk feeding is linked with infants' neurodevelopment are still unknown, potential epigenetic effects of breast milk through its bioactive components, including non-coding RNAs, stem cells and microbiome, could at least partly explain this association...

BACKGROUND: Health outcomes among children born prematurely are known to be sexually dimorphic, with male infants often more affected, yet the mechanism behind this observation is not clear. CpG methylation levels in the placenta and blood also differ by sex and are associated with adverse health outcomes. We contrasted CpG methylation levels in the placenta and neonatal blood (n = 358) from the Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborn (ELGAN) cohort based on the EPIC array, which assays over 850,000 CpG sites across the epigenome...

Introduction: Novel therapeutics are emerging to mitigate damage from perinatal brain injury (PBI). Few newborns with PBI suffer from a singular etiology. Most experience cumulative insults from prenatal inflammation, genetic and epigenetic vulnerability, toxins (opioids, other drug exposures, environmental exposure), hypoxia-ischemia, and postnatal stressors such as sepsis and seizures. Accordingly, tailoring of emerging therapeutic regimens with endogenous repair or neuro-immunomodulatory agents for individuals requires a more precise understanding of ligand, receptor-, and non-receptor-mediated regulation of essential developmental hormones...

The development of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) may be influenced by anemia or a low fetal/adult hemoglobin ratio. We aimed to analyze the association between DNA methyltransferase 3 β ( DNMT3B ) (rs2424913), methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase ( MTHFR ) (rs1801133), and lysine-specific histone demethylase 1A ( KDM1A ) (rs7548692) polymorphisms, erythrocyte parameters during the first week of life, and ROP. In total, 396 infants (gestational age < 32 weeks or birth weight < 1500 g) were evaluated clinically and hematologically...

The central objective of the metamorphosis of discovery science into biomedical applications is to serve the purpose of patients and curtail the global disease burden. The journey from the discovery of DNA methylation (DNAm) as a biological process to its emergence as a diagnostic tool is one of the finest examples of such metamorphosis and has taken nearly a century. Particularly in the last decade, the application of DNA methylation studies in the clinic has been standardized more than ever before, with great potential to diagnose a multitude of diseases that are associated with a burgeoning number of genes with this epigenetic alteration...

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a prevalent chronic lung disease of prematurity with limited treatment options. To uncover biomarkers of BPD risk, this study investigated epigenetic and transcriptomic signatures of prematurity at birth and during the neonatal period at day 14 and 28. Peripheral blood DNAs from preterm infants were applied to methylation arrays and cell-type composition was estimated by deconvolution. Covariate-adjusted robust linear regression elucidated BPD- and prolonged oxygen (≥ 14 days) exposure-associated CpGs...

Preterm birth (PTB), defined as the birth of a child before 37 completed weeks gestation, affects approximately 11% of live births and is the leading cause of death in children under 5 years. PTB is a complex disease with multiple risk factors including genetic variation. Much research has aimed to establish the biological mechanisms underlying PTB often through identification of genetic markers for PTB risk. The objective of this review is to present a comprehensive and updated summary of the published data relating to the field of PTB genetics...

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation (DNAm) is robustly associated with chronological age in children and adults, and gestational age (GA) in newborns. This property has enabled the development of several epigenetic clocks that can accurately predict chronological age and GA. However, the lack of overlap in predictive CpGs across different epigenetic clocks remains elusive. Our main aim was therefore to identify and characterize CpGs that are stably predictive of GA. RESULTS: We applied a statistical approach called 'stability selection' to DNAm data from 2138 newborns in the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort study...

Background: In the United States, Black women experience preterm birth (PTB; <37 weeks gestation) at more than 1.5 times the rate of non-Hispanic White women. Social determinants of health including the neighborhood environment have been recognized as contributing to the risk of PTB. Due to historical segregation, Black women are more likely to live in neighborhoods with higher levels of neighborhood disorder compared with White women. Perceived neighborhood disorder appears to be a risk factor for maternal psychological distress in Black women and psychological distress has mediated the association between neighborhood disorder and the risk for PTB...