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. 2018 Jun;62(12):e1800155.
doi: 10.1002/mnfr.201800155. Epub 2018 May 28.

Epigenome-Wide Association Study of Dietary Fiber Intake in African American Adolescents

Li Chen  1 , Yanbin Dong  1 , Xiaoling Wang  1 , Guang Hao  1 , Ying Huang  1 , Bernard Gutin  1 , Haidong Zhu  1
Affiliations

Epigenome-Wide Association Study of Dietary Fiber Intake in African American Adolescents

Li Chen et al. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2018 Jun.

Abstract

Scope: Low fiber intake is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer. However, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Two hypotheses are tested: 1) dietary fiber would be associated with DNA methylation levels; 2) those DNA methylation changes would be associated with visceral adiposity and inflammation. Also the possibility that the associations between fiber and DNA methylation levels might be confounded with folic acid intake as sensitivity analysis are explored.

Methods and results: An epigenome-wide association study is conducted using Illumina 450K Bead-Chip on leukocyte DNA in 284 African American adolescents. Linear regression is performed to identify differentially methylated CpG sites associated with fiber. The methylation levels of 3 CpG sites (cg15200711, cg19462022, and cg07035602) in LPCAT1 and RASA3 genes are associated with fiber (false discovery rate [FDR] < 0.05) after adjustment for covariates including folic acid. The methylation levels of cg07035602 and cg19462022 are also associated with visceral adiposity and inflammation.

Conclusions: The data show that DNA methylation levels at LPCAT1 and RASA3 genes are associated with dietary fiber intake as well as with adiposity and inflammation. Future studies are warranted to determine whether epigenetic regulation may underlie the beneficial effects of fiber intake on adiposity and inflammation.

Keywords: African American; DNA methylation; adiposity; adolescents; fiber intake; inflammation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest

The authors have declared no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Volcano plot. Beta values represent DNA methylation changes with 1 unit increase in square root of fiber intake, and the vertical axis indicates –log10 transformed observed p-values. Models were adjusted for age, sex, BMI and energy intake.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Manhattan plot. The vertical axis indicates –log10 transformed observed p-values. Models were adjusted for age, sex, BMI and energy intake.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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