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Maternal cardiometabolic factors and genetic ancestry influence epigenetic aging of the placenta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2020

Tsegaselassie Workalemahu Open the ORCID record for Tsegaselassie Workalemahu [Opens in a new window] ,
Deepika Shrestha ,
Salman M. Tajuddin  and
Fasil Tekola-Ayele
Tsegaselassie Workalemahu
Affiliation:
Epidemiology Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
Deepika Shrestha
Affiliation:
Epidemiology Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
Salman M. Tajuddin
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Epidemiology and Population Sciences, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
Fasil Tekola-Ayele*
Affiliation:
Epidemiology Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Fasil Tekola-Ayele, Epidemiology Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. Email: ayeleft@mail.nih.gov
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Abstract

Disruption of physiological aging of the placenta can lead to pregnancy complications and increased risk for cardiometabolic diseases during childhood and adulthood. Maternal metabolic and genetic factors need to operate in concert with placental development for optimal pregnancy outcome. However, it is unknown whether maternal cardiometabolic status and genetic ancestry contribute to differences in placental epigenetic age acceleration (PAA). We investigated whether maternal prepregnancy obesity, gestational weight gain (GWG), blood pressure, and genetic ancestry influence PAA. Among 301 pregnant women from 4 race/ethnic groups who provided placenta samples at delivery as part of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Fetal Growth Studies, placental DNA methylation age was estimated using 62 CpGs known to predict placental aging. PAA was defined to be the difference between placental DNA methylation age and gestational age at birth. Percentage of genetic ancestries was estimated using genotype data. We found that a 1 kg/week increase in GWG was associated with up to 1.71 (95% CI: −3.11, −0.32) week lower PAA. Offspring Native American ancestry and African ancestry were associated, respectively, with higher and lower PAA among Hispanics, and maternal East Asian ancestry was associated with lower PAA among Asians (p < 0.05). Among mothers with a male offspring, blood pressure was associated with lower PAA across all three trimesters (p < 0.05), prepregnancy obesity compared to normal weight was associated with 1.24 (95% CI: −2.24, −0.25) week lower PAA. In summary, we observed that maternal cardiometabolic factors and genetic ancestry influence placental epigenetic aging and some of these influences may be male offspring-specific.

Keywords

Obesitygestational weight gainblood pressureancestryplacental agingepigenetic aging
Type
Original Article
Information
Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , pp. 34 - 41
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Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 2020

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