ArticleGenome biology2013
Adult monozygotic twins discordant for intra-uterine growth have indistinguishable genome-wide DNA methylation profiles.
Article in Genome biology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations between body size, nutrition and socioeconomic position in early life and the epigenome: A systematic review.PloS one · 2018Pooled it
- Identification of menstrual blood and vaginal fluid using a 4-plex MSRE-PCR system applicable to alleged sexual assault cases.International journal of legal medicine · 2025Article
- Birth weight discordance, gene expression, and DNA methylation: A scoping review of epigenetic twin studies.PloS one · 2025Article
- Identification of spermatozoa using a novel 3-plex MSRE-PCR assay for forensic examination of sexual assaults.International journal of legal medicine · 2020Article
- Don't brush off buccal data heterogeneity.Epigenetics · 2019Article
- Developmental Tuning of Epigenetic Clock.Frontiers in genetics · 2018Article
- Copy Number Variants and Exome Sequencing Analysis in Six Pairs of Chinese Monozygotic Twins Discordant for Congenital Heart Disease.Twin research and human genetics : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies · 2017Article
- Birth weight discordance, DNA methylation, and cortical morphology of adolescent monozygotic twins.Human brain mapping · 2017Article
- Novel identification of biofluids using a multiplex methylation-specific PCR combined with single-base extension system.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2016Article
- Genetic variants modify the effect of age on APOE methylation in the Genetics of Lipid Lowering Drugs and Diet Network study.Aging cell · 2015Article
- Novel DNA methylation profiles associated with key gene regulation and transcription pathways in blood and placenta of growth-restricted neonates.Epigenetics · 2015Article
- Gene-gene and gene-environment interactions detected by transcriptome sequence analysis in twins.Nature genetics · 2015Article
- Epigenetic signature of birth weight discordance in adult twins.BMC genomics · 2014Article
- Genome-wide DNA methylation variability in adolescent monozygotic twins followed since birth.Epigenetics · 2014Article
- Influence of relative NK-DC abundance on placentation and its relation to epigenetic programming in the offspring.Cell death & disease · 2014Article
- Postnatal stability, tissue, and time specific effects of AHRR methylation change in response to maternal smoking in pregnancy.Epigenetics · 2014Article
- Birth weight, working memory and epigenetic signatures in IGF2 and related genes: a MZ twin study.PloS one · 2014Review
- Epigenetic genes and emotional reactivity to daily life events: a multi-step gene-environment interaction study.PloS one · 2014Article
- Epigenetics of discordant monozygotic twins: implications for disease.Genome medicine · 2014Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLow birth weight is associated with an increased adult metabolic disease risk. It is widely discussed that poor intra-uterine conditions could induce long-lasting epigenetic modifications, leading to systemic changes in regulation of metabolic genes. To address this, we acquire genome-wide DNA methylation profiles from saliva DNA in a unique cohort of 17 monozygotic monochorionic female twins very discordant for birth weight. We examine if adverse prenatal growth conditions experienced by the smaller co-twins lead to long-lasting DNA methylation changes.
resultsOverall, co-twins show very similar genome-wide DNA methylation profiles. Since observed differences are almost exclusively caused by variable cellular composition, an original marker-based adjustment strategy was developed to eliminate such variation at affected CpGs. Among adjusted and unchanged CpGs 3,153 are differentially methylated between the heavy and light co-twins at nominal significance, of which 45 show sensible absolute mean β-value differences. Deep bisulfite sequencing of eight such loci reveals that differences remain in the range of technical variation, arguing against a reproducible biological effect. Analysis of methylation in repetitive elements using methylation-dependent primer extension assays also indicates no significant intra-pair differences.
conclusionsSevere intra-uterine growth differences observed within these monozygotic twins are not associated with long-lasting DNA methylation differences in cells composing saliva, detectable with up-to-date technologies. Additionally, our results indicate that uneven cell type composition can lead to spurious results and should be addressed in epigenomic studies.
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