Open AccessGenome-Wide Identification of Epigenetic Hotspots Potentially Related to Cardiovascular Risk in Adult Women after a Complicated Pregnancy
Author(s) -
Cees B.M. Oudejans,
Ankie Poutsma,
Omar J. Michel,
Joyce Mulders,
Allerdien Visser,
Marie van Dijk,
Tessa D. Nauta,
Anouk Bokslag,
Walter J. Paulus,
Andreas D Haas,
Pieter Koolwijk,
Christianne J. M. de Groot
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0148313
Subject(s) - epigenetics , pregnancy , genome , bioinformatics , identification (biology) , biology , genetics , medicine , computational biology , obstetrics , gene , botany
Background The physiological demands of pregnancy on the maternal cardiovascular system can catapult women into a metabolic syndrome that predisposes to atherosclerosis in later life. We sought to identify the nature of the epigenomic changes associated with the increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in adult women following pre-eclampsia. Findings We assessed the genome wide epigenetic profile by methyl-C sequencing of monozygotic parous twin sister pairs discordant for a severe variant of pre-eclampsia. In the adult twin sisters at risk for CVD as a consequence of a complicated pregnancy, a set of 12 differentially methylated regions with at least 50% difference in methylation percentage and the same directional change was found to be shared between the affected twin sisters and significantly different compared to their unaffected monozygous sisters. Conclusion The current epigenetic marker set will permit targeted analysis of differentially methylated regions potentially related to CVD risk in large cohorts of adult women following complicated pregnancies.