Preeclampsia/Eclampsia candidate genes show altered methylation in maternal leukocytes of preeclamptic women at the time of delivery

• Published in: Hypertension in pregnancy Vol. 35; no. 3; pp. 394 - 404
• Main Authors: White, Wendy M., Sun, Zhifu, Borowski, Kristi S., Brost, Brian C., Davies, Norman P., Rose, Carl H., Garovic, Vesna D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis 01.08.2016
• Subjects: Adult; AGT; Amidohydrolases - genetics; Amidohydrolases - metabolism; Angiotensinogen - genetics; Angiotensinogen - metabolism; CALCA; Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide - genetics; Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide - metabolism; candidate gene; Case-Control Studies; CpG Islands; DDAH1; DNA Methylation; Eclampsia - genetics; Eclampsia - metabolism; Female; Gene Expression Profiling; Humans; leukocyte; Leukocytes - metabolism; Parturition - physiology; POMC; Pre-Eclampsia - genetics; Pre-Eclampsia - metabolism; preeclampsia; Pregnancy; Pro-Opiomelanocortin - genetics; Pro-Opiomelanocortin - metabolism; Young Adult; POMC; CALCA; candidate gene; DDAH1; leukocyte; pregnancy; DNA methylation; preeclampsia; AGT
• ISSN: 1064-1955; 1525-6065
• DOI: 10.3109/10641955.2016.1162315

Objective: To analyze methylation profiles of known preeclampsia/eclampsia (PE) candidate genes in normal (NL) and preeclamptic (PE) women at delivery. Methods: A matched case-control study comparing methylation in 79 CpG sites/33 genes from an independent gene set in maternal leukocyte DNA in PE and NL (n = 14 each) on an Illumina BeadChip platform. Replication performed on second cohort (PE = 12; NL = 32). Results: PE demonstrates differential methylation in POMC, AGT, CALCA, and DDAH1 compared with NL. Conclusion: Differential methylation in four genes associated with PE may represent a potential biomarker or an epigenetic pathophysiologic mechanism altering gene transcription.