To determine whether prenatal exposures to medications can impact on epigenetic patterns in children, we need to have a reference data set of the normal DNA methylation pattern in cord blood. No such extensive reference set exists – until now!
In this study, PharmaTox researchers in collaboration with OUS, Folkehelsa and the Generation R study show why it is so important to have a cord blood reference data set, and why the previous standard reference data set that is currently used worldwide (based on blood samples from adult males) is incorrect.
The standard reference data set is not representative of the cell type composition in neonatal cord blood. Since blood comprises multiple cell types with specific DNA methylation patterns, confounding caused by cellular heterogeneity has up until now been a major concern.
Read the paper here: Gervin et al. (2016) Epigenetics
Contact: Robert Lyle, Kristina Gervin or Hedvig Nordeng.
Epigenetics is a multidisciplinary journal covering the latest aspects of epigenetic mechanisms and their regulation of diverse biological processes (IF: 5.3).