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Childhood obesity—methylate now, pay later?

A recent report has found an association between the methylation status of specific genes in human fetal tissue and the subsequent development of childhood adiposity in two longitudinal cohorts. Would epigenetic analysis at birth, therefore, have utility in identifying future risk of obesity?

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Correspondence to Jacob E. Friedman.

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Choudhury, M., Friedman, J. Childhood obesity—methylate now, pay later?. Nat Rev Endocrinol 7, 439–440 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2011.102

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