Relationships between the maternal prenatal diet and epigenetic state in infants: A systematic review of human studies

Abstract

Most human studies investigating the relationship between maternal diet in pregnancy and infant epigenetic state have focused on macro- and micro-nutrient intake, rather than the whole diet. This makes it difficult to translate the evidence into practical prenatal dietary recommendations. To review the evidence on how the prenatal diet relates to the epigenetic state of infants measured in the first year of life via candidate gene or genome-wide approaches. Following the PRISMA guidelines, this systematic literature search was completed in August 2020, and updated in August 2021 and April 2022. Studies investigating dietary supplementation were excluded. Risk of bias was assessed, and the ce..