Trial reportClinical epigenetics2016
Effect of prenatal DHA supplementation on the infant epigenome: results from a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Clinical epigenetics, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 93 citations in OpenAlex.
- Epigenome-wide association study of dietary fatty acid intake.Clinical epigenetics · 2024Pooled it
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Their Role in Pediatric Cancer.Nutrients · 2021Pooled it
- Fatty acids, epigenetic mechanisms and chronic diseases: a systematic review.Lipids in health and disease · 2019Pooled it
- Omega-3 fatty acid addition during pregnancy.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Maternal fatty acid concentrations and newborn DNA methylation.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2020Trial
- Randomized Controlled Trial of DHA Supplementation during Pregnancy: Child Adiposity Outcomes.Nutrients · 2017Trial
- The Impact of Nutrition on DNA Methylation: Methodological Challenges in Understanding Cause and Effect.Nutrients · 2026Review
- M-PACT leverages cell-free DNA methylomes to achieve robust classification of pediatric brain tumors.Nature cancer · 2026Article
- Parental diet and offspring health: a role for the gut microbiome via epigenetics.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2025Review
- Prenatal exposure to environmental phenols and phthalates and altered patterns of DNA methylation in childhood.Environment international · 2024Article
- Review
- Prenatal Arsenic Exposure on DNA Methylation ofToxics · 2024Article
- Placental Epigenome Impacts Fetal Development: Effects of Maternal Nutrients and Gut Microbiota.Nutrients · 2024Review
- Developmental Programming of the Fetal Immune System by Maternal Western-Style Diet: Mechanisms and Implications for Disease Pathways in the Offspring.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Dietary nutrients during gestation cause obesity and related metabolic changes by altering DNA methylation in the offspring.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Review
- Review
- Intrinsic Effects of Exposome in Atopic Dermatitis: Genomics, Epigenomics and Regulatory Layers.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Maternal PUFAs, Placental Epigenetics, and Their Relevance to Fetal Growth and Brain Development.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2023Review
- Maternal prenatal immunity, neonatal trained immunity, and early airway microbiota shape childhood asthma development.Allergy · 2022Article
- Maternal plasma fatty acid patterns in mid-pregnancy and offspring epigenetic gestational age at birth.Epigenetics · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEvidence is accumulating that nutritional exposures in utero can influence health outcomes in later life. Animal studies and human epidemiological studies have implicated epigenetic modifications as playing a key role in this process, but there are limited data from large well-controlled human intervention trials. This study utilized a large double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial to test whether a defined nutritional exposure in utero, in this case docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), could alter the infant epigenome. Pregnant mothers consumed DHA-rich fish oil (800 mg DHA/day) or placebo supplements from 20 weeks' gestation to delivery. Blood spots were collected from the children at birth (
resultsThere were no differences in global DNA methylation levels between the DHA and control group either at birth or at 5 years, but we identified 21 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) at birth, showing small DNA methylation differences (<5%) between the treatment groups, some of which seemed to persist until 5 years. The number of DMRs at birth was greater in males (127 DMRs) and in females (72 DMRs) separately, indicating a gender-specific effect.
conclusionMaternal DHA supplementation during the second half of pregnancy had small effects on DNA methylation of infants. While the potential functional significance of these changes remains to be determined, these findings further support the role of epigenetic modifications in developmental programming in humans and point the way for future studies.
trial registrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR), ACTRN12605000569606 and ACTRN12611001127998.
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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.