DNA Methylation in Newborns and Maternal Smoking in Pregnancy: Genome-wide Consortium Meta-analysis

A new study conducted by the Pregnancy And Childhood Epigenetics (PACE) consortium, with collaboration from IARC’s Epigenetics Group, on more than 6,000 mothers and their newborn children sampled from 13 cohorts worldwide, shows a profound deregulation of the epigenome in newborns of mothers who smoked during pregnancy. Epigenetic changes (DNA methylation) were identified in over 6,000 CpG sites, half of which span 2,017 genes (including the genes associated with cancer in adults) and represent new molecular changes that were not previously associated with smoking in either newborns or adults. Importantly, many of these epigenetic changes persist years later throughout childhood.

DNA Methylation in Newborns and Maternal Smoking in Pregnancy: Genome-wide Consortium Meta-analysis
Joubert BR, Felix JF, Yousefi P, Bakulski KM, Just AC, Breton C, Reese SE, et al.
The American Journal of Human Genetics 98, 680–696, Published Online 7 April 2016; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.02.019.

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