![]() ![]() ![]() The authors found that cord blood methylation was correlated with and significantly predicted the level of methylation at 3 years old. Of these children, 165 also had blood collected at age 3. Cord blood was analyzed from 279 children who are part of the Center's Mothers & Newborns study in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. (Global DNA methylation is defined as methylation levels measured in aggregate for all genetic material, not specific to one or more genes.)Ĭenter researchers analyzed global DNA methylation levels in blood at two different time points. Generally, low levels of global DNA methylation have been linked to genomic instability, which can lead to DNA damage. While the health impact of small changes in DNA methylation is not yet clear, there is concern that alterations caused by environmental exposures during important periods of development that could have effects across a lifetime. Recent evidence points to environmental exposures like arsenic, lead, and air pollution as factors in epigenetic changes - the umbrella term for DNA methylation and otheralterations to gene expressionthat don't come from DNA mutations. We set out to fill this data gap," explains lead author Julie Herbstman, PhD, assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School. However, there were no data in humans to either support or refute this hypothesis. "The current dogma is that DNA methylation marks are set during early development and are mainly persistent thereafter. The study, published in an online edition of PLOS ONE, is the first to look at DNA methylation changes over time in children. ![]()
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