ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2017
Social and physical environments early in development predict DNA methylation of inflammatory genes in young adulthood.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 68 papers, 3 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
68 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 176 citations in OpenAlex.
- The microbiota-gut-brain-epigenome axis as a novel therapeutic target for decoding postpartum depression.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Current epidemiological overview of glomerulonephritis in Latin America: a systematic literature review.Journal of nephrology · 2025Pooled it
- How are social determinants of health integrated into epigenetic research? A systematic review.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2021Pooled it
- Association of DNA methylation in BDNF with escitalopram treatment response in depressed Chinese Han patients.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2018Trial
- Tradeoffs between immune function and childhood growth among Amazonian forager-horticulturalists.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Trial
- Cooperative care influences genome-wide levels of DNA methylation in nestling chestnut-crowned babblers.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2026Article
- Interpersonal stress, epigenetic indices of inflammation, and depressive symptoms: Longitudinal associations from adolescence to young adulthood.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Long-term molecular embedding of early life adversity: leukocyte DNA methylation and gene expression associations from childhood to young adulthood.Epigenomics · 2026Article
- Practitioner Review: Infant mental health meets cell and molecular biology - a look to the future.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Review
- Non-invasive epigenetic protein signatures associated with childhood obesity.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Article
- Conversion Therapy Exposure and Elevated Cardiovascular Disease Risk.JAMA network open · 2025Observational
- Cost-effective solutions for high-throughput enzymatic DNA methylation sequencing.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Stay social, stay young: a bioanthropological outlook on the processes linking sociality and ageing.GeroScience · 2025Review
- Neighborhood-level deprivation and survival in lung cancer.BMC cancer · 2024Article
- Epigenetic scores derived in saliva are associated with gestational age at birth.Clinical epigenetics · 2024Article
- The use of race terms in epigenetics research: considerations moving forward.Frontiers in genetics · 2024Article
- Editorial: Inflammation and chronic disease.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- Three common assumptions about inflammation, aging, and health that are probably wrong.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Pheromone of grouped female mice impairs genome stability in male mice through stress-mediated pathways.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- History of childhood physical abuse is associated with gut microbiota diversity among adult psychiatric inpatients.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Article
8 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Chronic inflammation contributes to a wide range of human diseases, and environments in infancy and childhood are important determinants of inflammatory phenotypes. The underlying biological mechanisms connecting early environments with the regulation of inflammation in adulthood are not known, but epigenetic processes are plausible candidates. We tested the hypothesis that patterns of DNA methylation (DNAm) in inflammatory genes in young adulthood would be predicted by early life nutritional, microbial, and psychosocial exposures previously associated with levels of inflammation. Data come from a population-based longitudinal birth cohort study in metropolitan Cebu, the Philippines, and DNAm was characterized in whole blood samples from 494 participants (age 20-22 y). Analyses focused on probes in 114 target genes involved in the regulation of inflammation, and we identified 10 sites across nine genes where the level of DNAm was significantly predicted by the following variables: household socioeconomic status in childhood, extended absence of a parent in childhood, exposure to animal feces in infancy, birth in the dry season, or duration of exclusive breastfeeding. To evaluate the biological significance of these sites, we tested for associations with a panel of inflammatory biomarkers measured in plasma obtained at the same age as DNAm assessment. Three sites predicted elevated inflammation, and one site predicted lower inflammation, consistent with the interpretation that levels of DNAm at these sites are functionally relevant. This pattern of results points toward DNAm as a potentially important biological mechanism through which developmental environments shape inflammatory phenotypes across the life course.
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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.