Causal effect of smoking on DNA methylation in peripheral blood: A twin and family study

S Li; EM Wong; M Bui; TL Nguyen; JHE Joo; J Stone; GS Dite; GG Giles; R Saffery; MC Southey; JL Hopper

Journal article

Causal effect of smoking on DNA methylation in peripheral blood: A twin and family study

S Li, EM Wong, M Bui, TL Nguyen, JHE Joo, J Stone, GS Dite, GG Giles, R Saffery, MC Southey, JL Hopper

Clinical Epigenetics | BMC | Published : 2018

DOI: 10.1186/s13148-018-0452-9

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Abstract

Background: Smoking has been reported to be associated with peripheral blood DNA methylation, but the causal aspects of the association have rarely been investigated. We aimed to investigate the association and underlying causation between smoking and blood methylation. Methods: The methylation profile of DNA from the peripheral blood, collected as dried blood spots stored on Guthrie cards, was measured for 479 Australian women including 66 monozygotic twin pairs, 66 dizygotic twin pairs, and 215 sisters of twins from 130 twin families using the Infinium HumanMethylation450K BeadChip array. Linear regression was used to estimate associations between methylation at ~410,000 cytosine-guanine d..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

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Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

The Australian Mammographic Density Twins and Sisters Study was facilitated through the Australian Twin Registry, a national research resource in part supported by a Centre for Research Excellence Grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) APP 1079102. The AMDTSS was supported by NHMRC (grant numbers 1050561 and 1079102) and Cancer Australia and National Breast Cancer Foundation (grant number 509307). SL is supported by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship and the Richard Lovell Travelling Scholarship from the University of Melbourne. TLN is supported by a NHMRC Post-Graduate Scholarship and the Richard Lovell Travelling Scholarship from the University of Melbourne. MCS is a NHMRC Senior Research Fellow. JLH is a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow.