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  • Pediatric Original Article
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Maternal vitamin D, DNA methylation at imprint regulatory regions and offspring weight at birth, 1 year and 3 years

International Journal of Obesity volume 42, pages 587–593 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objective:

Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy is associated with poor birth outcomes in some studies, but few have examined weight beyond birth. In addition, little is known about how vitamin D influences DNA methylation of regulatory regions known to be involved in growth, as possible mediators to weight status in offspring.

SubjectS/Methods:

We conducted linear regressions to assess maternal plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) by quartile and birth weight for gestational age z-score, 1-year weight-for-length z-score and 3-year body mass index (BMI) z-score among 476 mother/infant dyads from a prospective cohort. We assessed maternal 25(OH)D and infant DNA methylation at nine differentially methylated regions (DMRs) of genomically imprinted genes with known functions in fetal growth, including H19, IGF2, MEG3, MEG3-IG, MEST, NNAT, PEG3, PLAGL1 and SGCE/PEG10.

Results:

Mean (standard deviation, s.d.) maternal 25(OH)D was 41.1 (14.2) nmol l−m at a mean (s.d.) of 13.2 (5.5) weeks gestation. After adjustment for potential confounders, the first (Q1) and second (Q2) quartiles of 25(OH)D, compared to the fourth (Q4), were associated with lower birth weight for gestational age z-scores (−0.43 units; CI: −0.79, −0.07; P=0.02 for Q1 and −0.56 units; CI: −0.89, −0.23; P=0.001 for Q2). Q1 compared to Q4 was associated with higher 1-year weight-for-length z-scores (0.78 units; 0.08, 1.54; P=0.04) and higher 3-year BMI z-scores (0.83 units; 0.11, 0.93; P=0.02). We did not observe associations between maternal 25(OH)D and methylation for any of the nine DMRs after correcting for multiple testing.

Conclusions:

Reduced maternal 25(OH)D was associated with lower birth weight for gestational age z-scores but higher 1-year weight-for-length and 3-year BMI z-scores in offspring. However, 25(OH)D does not appear to be operating through the regulatory sequences of the genomically imprinted genes we examined.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the participants of the Newborn Epigenetics Study (NEST). This work was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01ES016772, P30ES025128 and R01CA142983).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    S E Benjamin Neelon

  2. Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle, NC, USA

    A J White

  3. Department of Surgery, Division of Urology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    A C Vidal

  4. Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    J M Schildkraut

  5. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    A P Murtha & S K Murphy

  6. Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Human Health and the Environment, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    S W Kullman & C Hoyo

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  1. S E Benjamin Neelon
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Correspondence to S E Benjamin Neelon.

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Benjamin Neelon, S., White, A., Vidal, A. et al. Maternal vitamin D, DNA methylation at imprint regulatory regions and offspring weight at birth, 1 year and 3 years. Int J Obes 42, 587–593 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2017.160

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