A systematic review of studies of DNA methylation in the context of a weight loss intervention

Abstract

Aim: Obesity results from the interaction of genetic and environmental factors, which may involve epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation (DNAm).

Materials & methods: We have followed the PRISMA protocol to select studies that analyzed DNAm at baseline and end point of a weight loss intervention using either candidate-locus or genome-wide approaches.

Results: Six genes displayed weight loss associated DNAm across four out of nine genome-wide studies. Weight loss is associated with significant but small changes in DNAm across the genome, and weight loss outcome is associated with individual differences in baseline DNAm at several genomic locations.

Conclusion: The identified weight loss associated DNAm markers, especially those showing reproducibility across different studies, warrant validation by further studies with robust design and adequate power.

Keywords: DNA methylation; body mass index (BMI); differentially methylated regions (DMR); differentially methylated sites (DMS); epigenetic biomarkers; obesity; single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP); weight loss.