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. 2024 Nov-Nov;16(21-22):1365-1372.
doi: 10.1080/17501911.2024.2408217. Epub 2024 Nov 12.

The potential utility of cord blood DNA methylation in pediatric clinical practice

Stephanie W Waldrop  1   2 , Wei Perng  3 , Iain R Konigsberg  4 , Sarah J Borengasser  5
Affiliations

The potential utility of cord blood DNA methylation in pediatric clinical practice

Stephanie W Waldrop et al. Epigenomics. 2024 Nov-Nov.

Abstract

Our understanding of the origins of noncommunicable diseases has evolved over the years with greater consideration given to the lasting influence exposures and experiences during the preconceptional and prenatal periods can have. Research highlights the associations of parental exposures (e.g., diet, obesity, gestational diabetes, lipid profile, toxic exposures and microbiome) with the infant/fetal methylome and suggest associations with infant, child and/or adolescent chronic health outcomes. Thus, epigenetics and specifically cord blood DNA methylation may have utility as biomarkers for disease risk identification and stratification in pediatrics. However, for cord blood DNA methylation analyses to be leveraged as biomarkers of disease risk in pediatric clinical practice, the results must be replicable, validated and clinically meaningful. Challenges and opportunities to this prospect are herein discussed.

Keywords: cord blood DNA methylation; developmental origins of health and disease; epigenetic predictors; pediatric chronic disease.

Plain language summary

[Box: see text].

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

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