Metabolic and Immunological Shifts during Mid-to-Late Gestation Influence Maternal Blood Methylation of CPT1A and SREBF1

• Main Authors: Shilpa Pavethynath, Chihiro Imai, Xin Jin, Naomi Hichiwa, Hidemi Takimoto, Motoko Okamitsu, Iori Tarui, Tomoko Aoyama, Satoshi Yago, Ayako Fudono, Masaaki Muramatsu, Naoyuki Miyasaka, Noriko Sato
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-03-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: pregnancy; DNA methylation; CPT1A; SREBF1; leukocyte composition
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/20/5/1066

Mid-to-late gestation is a unique period in which women experience dynamic changes in lipid metabolism. Although the recent intensive epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) using peripheral leukocytes have revealed that lipid-related traits alter DNA methylation, the influence of pregnancy-induced metabolic changes on the methylation levels of these differentially methylated sites is not well known. In this study, we performed a prospective cohort study of pregnant women (n = 52) using the MassARRAY EpiTYPER assay and analyzed the methylation levels of variably methylated sites, including CPT1A intron 1 and SREBF1 intron 1 CpGs, which were previously verified to be robustly associated with adiposity traits. Although methylation of SREBF1 was associated with body mass index (BMI) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol at mid-gestation, this association was attenuated at late gestation, which was consistent with the metabolic switch from an anabolic to a catabolic state. However, the BMI association with CPT1A intron 1 methylation appeared to strengthen at late gestation; this association was mediated by pre-pregnancy BMI-dependent change in the leukocyte proportion during mid-to-late gestation. Thus, the methylation of adiposity-related differentially methylated regions was sensitive to metabolic and immunological changes during mid-to-late gestation.