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Sex-Specific DNA Methylation in Saliva from the Multi-Ethnic Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study



Details

  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    The prevalence and severity of many diseases differs by sex, potentially due to sex-specific patterns in DNA methylation. Autosomal sex-specific differences in DNA methylation have been observed in cord blood and placental tissue but are not well studied in saliva or in diverse populations. We sought to characterize sex-specific DNA methylation on autosomal chromosomes in saliva samples from children in the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a multi-ethnic prospective birth cohort containing an oversampling of Black, Hispanic and low-income families. DNA methylation from saliva samples was analysed on 796 children (50.6% male) at both ages 9 and 15 with DNA methylation measured using the Illumina HumanMethylation 450k array. An epigenome-wide association analysis of the age 9 samples identified 8,430 sex-differentiated autosomal DNA methylation sites (P < 2.4 × 10-7), of which 76.2% had higher DNA methylation in female children. The strongest sex-difference was in the cg26921482 probe, in the AMDHD2 gene, with 30.6% higher DNA methylation in female compared to male children (P < 1 × 10-300). Treating the age 15 samples as an internal replication set, we observed highly consistent results between the ages 9 and 15 measurements, indicating stable and replicable sex-differentiation. Further, we directly compared our results to previously published DNA methylation sex differences in both cord blood and saliva and again found strong consistency. Our findings support widespread and robust sex-differential DNA methylation across age, human tissues, and populations. These findings help inform our understanding of potential biological processes contributing to sex differences in human physiology and disease. [Description provided by NIOSH]
  • Subjects:
  • Keywords:
  • ISSN:
    1559-2294
  • Document Type:
    Text
  • Funding:
    Grant
  • Genre:
    Journal Article
  • Place as Subject:
  • CIO:
    National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
  • Topic:
    Workplace Safety & Health
  • Location:
    North America
  • Volume:
    18
  • Issue:
    1
  • NIOSHTIC Number:
    nn:20070591
  • Citation:
    Epigenetics 2024 Jan; 18(1):2222244
  • Contact Point Address:
    Erin B. Ware, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 426 Thompson St, Ann Arbor, Michigan, MI 48104, USA
  • Email:
    ebakshis@umich.edu
  • Federal Fiscal Year:
    2024
  • Performing Organization:
    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • Peer Reviewed:
    True
  • Start Date:
    20050701
  • Source Full Name:
    Epigenetics
  • End Date:
    20280630
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:b39c33f4451a9a4c2e2986030313964dbedf624f033c74d3dbb59933dedfe9edca36c16fefa4cc1839c4c8cbe93ebe7d71abdd19b26e23fbaa8ca797e97e8289
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 1.98 MB ]
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