The mediation analysis of DNA methylation in the relationship between maternal arsenic exposure and neonatal birth weight

FANG Ruiling; BAI Wenlin; CUI Yuehua; WANG Tong

doi:10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2024.09.015

Volume 28 Issue 9

Sep. 2024

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FANG Ruiling, BAI Wenlin, CUI Yuehua, WANG Tong. The mediation analysis of DNA methylation in the relationship between maternal arsenic exposure and neonatal birth weight[J]. CHINESE JOURNAL OF DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION, 2024, 28(9): 1090-1095. doi: 10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2024.09.015

Citation:

FANG Ruiling, BAI Wenlin, CUI Yuehua, WANG Tong. The mediation analysis of DNA methylation in the relationship between maternal arsenic exposure and neonatal birth weight[J]. CHINESE JOURNAL OF DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION, 2024, 28(9): 1090-1095. doi: 10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2024.09.015

Citation:

FANG Ruiling, BAI Wenlin, CUI Yuehua, WANG Tong. The mediation analysis of DNA methylation in the relationship between maternal arsenic exposure and neonatal birth weight[J]. CHINESE JOURNAL OF DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION, 2024, 28(9): 1090-1095. doi: 10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2024.09.015

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The mediation analysis of DNA methylation in the relationship between maternal arsenic exposure and neonatal birth weight

doi: 10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2024.09.015

FANG Ruiling^{1, 2},
BAI Wenlin²,
CUI Yuehua³,
WANG Tong^{1, 2
,
,}

1.
Department of Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, China
2.
MOE Key Laboratory of Coal Environmental Pathogenicity and Prevention, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, China
3.
Department of Statistics and Probability, Michigan State University, East Lansing MI48824, USA

Funds:

National Natural Science Foundation of China 82204164

Applied Basic Research Program of Shanxi Province 20210302124409

China Postdoctoral Science Foundation 2021M691990

More Information

Corresponding author: WANG Tong, E-mail: tongwang@sxmu.edu.cn
Received Date: 2023-12-13
Rev Recd Date: 2024-04-18

Available Online: 2024-10-24

Publish Date: 2024-09-10

Abstract

Abstract

Objective To investigate whether the changes of DNA methylation level mediate the relationship between prenatal arsenic exposure and neonatal birth weight. Methods Data of this study were derived from the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study, with 343 mother-infant pairs enrolled in the cohort from February 2012 to September 2013 and available from the GEO database under accession number GSE71678. A total of 270 maternal and infant pairs were included in this study. The Sure independence screening (SIS) strategy and mediation analysis method were employed to estimate the mediation effect of DNA methylation sites between placental arsenic exposure and birth weight. Results After adjusting for maternal age, pre-pregnancy BMI, gestational diabetes mellitus, gestational age, infant gender, and placental tissue cell composition, 25 DNA methylation sites were selected as candidate mediators. The results of mediation analysis showed that after corrected by Bonferroni method. cg14900295 located on the VENTX gene was identified as a mediator between maternal arsenic exposure and low birth weight (ACME=0.057 6, 95% CI: 0.017 6-0.106 4, P=0.000 8). After corrected by FDR method, 18 CpG loci were identified as mediators, among which cg03348978, cg02435495, cg09463047 and cg11862993 were all located on the HNF1B gene. Conclusions This study identified 18 specific sites where changes in DNA methylation levels play a crucial mediating role in the process linking prenatal arsenic exposure to low birth weight. Genes VENTX and HNF1B may be the key factors in the etiological mechanism. Therefore, these findings can provide a reference for revealing the genetic etiology mechanism of arsenic-induced low birth weight.
- DNA methylation,
- Placental arsenic exposure,
- Birth weight,
- Mediation effect

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References(17)

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