ArticleInternational journal of obesity (2005)2018
DNA methylation in blood from neonatal screening cards and the association with BMI and insulin sensitivity in early childhood.
Article in International journal of obesity (2005), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 57 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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
57 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 145 citations in OpenAlex.
- Epigenetic Mechanisms in Childhood Obesity.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Regulation of nc886 (vtRNA2-1) RNAs is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors and diseases.Clinical epigenetics · 2025Pooled it
- Cord blood epigenome-wide meta-analysis in six European-based child cohorts identifies signatures linked to rapid weight growth.BMC medicine · 2023Pooled it
- DNA methylation and body mass index from birth to adolescence: meta-analyses of epigenome-wide association studies.Genome medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies in newborns and children show widespread sex differences in blood DNA methylation.Mutation research. Reviews in mutation researchPooled it
- Differential methylation at novel putative imprinting control regions on chromosome 20 associated with childhood obesity.Epigenetics · 2026Article
- Epigenetics and childhood obesity: DNA methylation coordinates environment and gene regulation.Endocrine reviews · 2026Review
- Epigenetic Signature of the Metastable Epiallele VTRNA2-1: Adipose Dysfunction and Suboptimal Bariatric Outcomes.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2026Article
- Hypomethylation of VTRNA2-1 promoter predicts adverse outcomes in peripheral artery disease.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Article
- Novel epigenetic marks of insulin resistance trajectories in a longitudinal study of childhood obesity.Cardiovascular diabetology · 2026Article
- MicroBayesAge: a maximum likelihood approach to predict epigenetic age using microarray data.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Father's adolescent body silhouette is associated with offspring asthma, lung function and BMI through DNA methylation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Early life epigenetics and childhood outcomes: a scoping review.Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Association of exposure to second-hand smoke during childhood with blood DNA methylation.Environment international · 2025Article
- Non-coding 886 (Epigenetics · 2024Review
- Article
- Accurate age prediction from blood using a small set of DNA methylation sites and a cohort-based machine learning algorithm.Cell reports methods · 2023Article
- Sexually dimorphic methylation patterns characterize the placenta and blood from extremely preterm newborns.BMC biology · 2023Article
- Article
- Phenome-wide analyses identify an association between the parent-of-origin effects dependent methylome and the rate of aging in humans.Genome biology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
objectivesThere is increasing evidence that metabolic diseases originate in early life, and epigenetic changes have been implicated as key drivers of this early life programming. This led to the hypothesis that epigenetic marks present at birth may predict an individual's future risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. In this study, we assessed whether epigenetic marks in blood of newborn children were associated with body mass index (BMI) and insulin sensitivity later in childhood. SUBJECTS/
methodsDNA methylation was measured in neonatal blood spot samples of 438 children using the Illumina Infinium 450 k BeadChip. Associations were assessed between DNA methylation at birth and BMI z-scores, body fat mass, fasting plasma glucose, insulin and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) at age 5 years, as well as birth weight, maternal BMI and smoking status.
resultsNo individual methylation sites at birth were associated with obesity or insulin sensitivity measures at 5 years. DNA methylation in 69 genomic regions at birth was associated with BMI z-scores at age 5 years, and in 63 regions with HOMA-IR. The methylation changes were generally small (<5%), except for a region near the non-coding RNA nc886 (VTRNA2-1) where a clear link between methylation status at birth and BMI in childhood was observed (P=0.001). Associations were also found between DNA methylation, maternal smoking and birth weight.
conclusionsWe identified a number of DNA methylation regions at birth that were associated with obesity or insulin sensitivity measurements in childhood. These findings support the mounting evidence on the role of epigenetics in programming of metabolic health. Whether many of these small changes in DNA methylation are causally related to the health outcomes, and of clinical relevance, remains to be determined, but the nc886 region represents a promising obesity risk marker that warrants further investigation.
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