Journal article
Postnatal stability, tissue, and time specific effects of AHRR methylation change in response to maternal smoking in pregnancy.
B Novakovic, J Ryan, N Pereira, B Boughton, JM Craig, R Saffery
Epigenetics : official journal of the DNA Methylation Society | Published : 2014
DOI: 10.4161/epi.27248
Abstract
The intrauterine environment has the potential to "program" the developing fetus in a way that can be potentially deleterious to later health. While in utero environmental/stochastic factors are known to influence DNA methylation profile at birth, it has been difficult to assign specific examples of epigenetic variation to specific environmental exposures. Recently, several studies have linked exposure to smoking with DNA methylation change in the aryl hydrocarbon receptor repressor (AHRR) gene in blood. This includes hypomethylation of AHRR in neonatal blood in response to maternal smoking in pregnancy. The role of AHRR as a negative regulator of pathways involved in pleiotropic responses t..
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Awarded by Owl Research Institute
Funding Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Ruth Morley, John Carlin, Mark Umstad, Euan Wallace, and Michael Permezel for their contributions to establishing the PETS cohort; Sarah Healy, Tina Vaiano, Nicole Brooks, Jennifer Foord, Sheila Holland, Anne Krastev, Siva Illancheran, and Joanne Mockler for recruitment and sample collection; Xin Li, Ji Hoon E Joo, Anna Czajko, Geraldine McIlroy, and all mothers and twins that participated in this study. We also thank Ben Ong for help with Sequenom analysis and Megan Thompson for technical work. This work was supported by grants from the from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (grant numbers 437015 and 607358 to Craig JM and Saffery R), the Financial Markets Foundation for Children (grant no. 032-2007), and by the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program. Saffery R is supported by a NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship. Craig JM would also like to acknowledge financial support from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute. Ryan J is supported by an NHMRC Training (Postdoctoral) Fellowship (Overseas Public Health, APP1012735).