B3809 - Comprehensive Prenatal Smoking Assessment and Newborn Methylation - 21/06/2021

B number: 
B3809
Principal applicant name: 
Giulia Mancano | IEU, University of Bristol
Co-applicants: 
Dr Gemma Sharp, Dr Thanh T. Hoang
Title of project: 
Comprehensive Prenatal Smoking Assessment and Newborn Methylation
Proposal summary: 

The detriment of maternal smoking on offspring is well known while the biological mechanism regulating the relationship are not fully understood. Epigenetic profile has emerged as a potential link between the two. Sustained maternal smoking during pregnancy, here defined as smoking past the first trimester, has been associated with deferentially methylated CpG sites in the offspring (1-6) and a dose-response effect might also be plausible (2, 4, 7).

1. Joubert BR, Felix JF, Yousefi P, Bakulski KM, Just AC, Breton C, et al. DNA Methylation in Newborns and Maternal Smoking in Pregnancy: Genome-wide Consortium Meta-analysis. Am J Hum Genet. 2016;98(4):680-96.
2. Ladd-Acosta C, Shu C, Lee BK, Gidaya N, Singer A, Schieve LA, et al. Presence of an epigenetic signature of prenatal cigarette smoke exposure in childhood. Environmental research. 2016;144(Pt A):139-48.
3. Lee KW, Richmond R, Hu P, French L, Shin J, Bourdon C, et al. Prenatal exposure to maternal cigarette smoking and DNA methylation: epigenome-wide association in a discovery sample of adolescents and replication in an independent cohort at birth through 17 years of age. Environ Health Perspect. 2015;123(2):193-9.
4. Markunas CA, Xu Z, Harlid S, Wade PA, Lie RT, Taylor JA, et al. Identification of DNA methylation changes in newborns related to maternal smoking during pregnancy. Environ Health Perspect. 2014;122(10):1147-53.
5. Rzehak P, Saffery R, Reischl E, Covic M, Wahl S, Grote V, et al. Maternal Smoking during Pregnancy and DNA-Methylation in Children at Age 5.5 Years: Epigenome-Wide-Analysis in the European Childhood Obesity Project (CHOP)-Study. PLoS One. 2016;11(5):e0155554.
6. Witt SH, Frank J, Gilles M, Lang M, Treutlein J, Streit F, et al. Impact on birth weight of maternal smoking throughout pregnancy mediated by DNA methylation. BMC Genomics. 2018;19(1):290.
7. Richmond RC, Simpkin AJ, Woodward G, Gaunt TR, Lyttleton O, McArdle WL, et al. Prenatal exposure to maternal smoking and offspring DNA methylation across the lifecourse: findings from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Hum Mol Genet. 2015;24(8):2201-17.

Impact of research: 
To expand the portfolio of evidence of the impact of prenatal smoking on offspring DNA-methylation by investigating a series of smoking-related exposures.
Date proposal received: 
Tuesday, 15 June, 2021
Date proposal approved: 
Monday, 21 June, 2021
Keywords: 
Epigenetic Epidemiology, Pregnancy - e.g. reproductive health, postnatal depression, birth outcomes, etc., EWAS, Epigenetics, Fathers, Smoking