ArticleInternational journal of epidemiology2015
Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain, offspring DNA methylation and later offspring adiposity: findings from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.
Article in International journal of epidemiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 170 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
170 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 292 citations in OpenAlex.
- A meta-analysis of pre-pregnancy maternal body mass index and placental DNA methylation identifies 27 CpG sites with implications for mother-child health.Communications biology · 2022Pooled it
- DNA methylation and body mass index from birth to adolescence: meta-analyses of epigenome-wide association studies.Genome medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Maternal body mass index, gestational weight gain, and the risk of overweight and obesity across childhood: An individual participant data meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2019Pooled it
- Maternal prepregnancy BMI or weight and offspring's blood pressure: Systematic review.Maternal & child nutrition · 2018Pooled it
- Maternal BMI at the start of pregnancy and offspring epigenome-wide DNA methylation: findings from the pregnancy and childhood epigenetics (PACE) consortium.Human molecular genetics · 2017Pooled it
- Breastfeeding effects on DNA methylation in the offspring: A systematic literature review.PloS one · 2017Pooled it
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- Associations of early pregnancy BMI with adverse pregnancy outcomes and infant neurocognitive development.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
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- Beyond Deterministic Fetal Programming: Intrauterine Exposures and the Multifactorial Origins of Adiposity.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Review
- Epigenetics and childhood obesity: DNA methylation coordinates environment and gene regulation.Endocrine reviews · 2026Review
- DNA methylation as proxy of genetic, prenatal and perinatal psychiatric risk factors.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Review
- Population epigenetics: deciphering DNA methylation diversity and its implications for health, disease, and evolution.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Review
- Dietary Interventions Targeting Maternal Obesity: Intergenerational Effects, Mechanisms, and Translational Insights.Current nutrition reports · 2026Review
- Blood DNA methylation of EIF5A and TGIF1 is associated with adipose tissue health and metabolic outcomes in obesity: a multi-cohort study.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Article
- Early-life programming of hypothalamic circuits by maternal obesity: implications for neuroendocrine disorders.Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders · 2026Review
110 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEvidence suggests that in utero exposure to undernutrition and overnutrition might affect adiposity in later life. Epigenetic modification is suggested as a plausible mediating mechanism.
methodsWe used multivariable linear regression and a negative control design to examine offspring epigenome-wide DNA methylation in relation to maternal and offspring adiposity in 1018 participants.
resultsCompared with neonatal offspring of normal weight mothers, 28 and 1621 CpG sites were differentially methylated in offspring of obese and underweight mothers, respectively [false discovert rate (FDR)-corrected P-value < 0.05), with no overlap in the sites that maternal obesity and underweight relate to. A positive association, where higher methylation is associated with a body mass index (BMI) outside the normal range, was seen at 78.6% of the sites associated with obesity and 87.9% of the sites associated with underweight. Associations of maternal obesity with offspring methylation were stronger than associations of paternal obesity, supporting an intrauterine mechanism. There were no consistent associations of gestational weight gain with offspring DNA methylation. In general, sites that were hypermethylated in association with maternal obesity or hypomethylated in association with maternal underweight tended to be positively associated with offspring adiposity, and sites hypomethylated in association with maternal obesity or hypermethylated in association with maternal underweight tended to be inversely associated with offspring adiposity.
conclusionsOur data suggest that both maternal obesity and, to a larger degree, underweight affect the neonatal epigenome via an intrauterine mechanism, but weight gain during pregnancy has little effect. We found some evidence that associations of maternal underweight with lower offspring adiposity and maternal obesity with greater offspring adiposity may be mediated via increased DNA methylation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.