Boris Novakovic, Sharon Lewis, Jane Halliday, Joanne Kennedy, David P Burgner, Anna Czajko, Bowon Kim, Alexandra Sexton-Oates, Markus Juonala, Karin Hammarberg, David J Amor, Lex W Doyle, Sarath Ranganathan, Liam Welsh, Michael Cheung, John McBain, Robert McLachlan, Richard Saffery
More than 7 million individuals have been conceived by Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) and there is clear evidence that ART is associated with a range of adverse early life outcomes, including rare imprinting disorders. The periconception period and early embryogenesis are associated with widespread epigenetic remodeling, which can be influenced by ART, with effects on the developmental trajectory in utero, and potentially on health throughout life. Here we profile genome-wide DNA methylation in blood collected in the newborn period and in adulthood (age 22-35 years) from a unique longitudinal cohort of ART-conceived individuals, previously shown to have no differences in health outcomes in early adulthood compared with non-ART-conceived individuals...
September 2, 2019: Nature Communications