Background: To examine methylation of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor. (PPAR gamma) gene and its relationship with child weight status, at birth and 9 years.Methods: We measured PPAR gamma methylation across 23 CpG sites using the Infinium Illumina 450 k array for children from the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) cohort at birth (N = 373) and 9 years (N = 245).Results: Methylation level correlation patterns across the 23 PPAR gamma CpG sites were conserved between birth and 9-year ages. We found high inter-CpG correlations between sites 1-3 (methylation block 1) and also between sites 18-23 (methylation block 2) for both time points, although these patterns were less pronounced at 9 years. Additionally, sites 1-3 (north shore) had the highest intra-CpG correlations over time (r = 0.24, 0.42, and 0.3; P = 0.002, P < 0.001, P < 0.001, respectively). PPAR gamma methylation levels tended to increase with age, and the largest differences were observed for north shore sites (7.4%). Adjusting for sex, both site 1 and site 20 (gene body) methylation at birth was significantly and inversely associated with birth weight (beta = -0.13, P = 0.033; beta = -0.09, P = 0.025, respectively). Similarly, we found that site 1 and site 20 methylation at 9 years was significantly and inversely associated with 9-year BMI z-score (beta = -0.41, P = 0.015; beta = -0.23, P = 0.045, respectively).Conclusion: Our results indicate that PPAR gamma methylation is highly organized and conserved over time, and highlight the potential functional importance of north shore sites, adding to a better understanding of regional human methylome patterns. Overall, our results suggest that PPAR gamma methylation may be associated with child body size.
CpG Methylation across the adipogenic PPAR gamma gene and its relationship with birthweight and child BMI at 9 years
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