Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Epigenomics. 2024;16(17):1175-1183. doi: 10.1080/17501911.2024.2390823. Epub 2024 Sep 12.
Fetal exposures can induce epigenetic modifications, particularly DNA methylation, potentially predisposing individuals to later health issues. Cord blood (CB) DNA methylation provides a unique window into the fetal epigenome, reflecting the intrauterine environment's impact. Maternal factors, including nutrition, smoking and toxin exposure, can alter CB DNA methylation patterns, associated with conditions from obesity to neurodevelopmental disorders. These epigenetic changes underscore prenatal exposures' enduring effects on health trajectories. Technical challenges include tissue specificity issues, limited coverage of current methylation arrays and confounding factors like cell composition variability. Emerging technologies, such as single-cell sequencing, promise to overcome some of these limitations. Longitudinal studies are crucial to elucidate exposure-epigenome interactions and develop prevention strategies. Future research should address these challenges, advance public health initiatives to reduce teratogen exposure and consider ethical implications of epigenetic profiling. Progress in CB epigenetics research promises personalized medicine approaches, potentially transforming our understanding of developmental programming and offering novel interventions to promote lifelong health from the earliest stages of life.
胎儿暴露会引起表观遗传修饰，特别是 DNA 甲基化，可能使个体易患后期健康问题。脐带血 (CB) DNA 甲基化提供了一个独特的窗口，可以了解胎儿的表观基因组，反映了宫内环境的影响。母体因素，包括营养、吸烟和毒素暴露，会改变 CB DNA 甲基化模式，与肥胖到神经发育障碍等各种情况相关。这些表观遗传变化突显了产前暴露对健康轨迹的持久影响。技术挑战包括组织特异性问题、当前甲基化阵列的有限覆盖范围以及细胞组成变异性等混杂因素。新兴技术，如单细胞测序，有望克服其中的一些限制。纵向研究对于阐明暴露-表观基因组相互作用和制定预防策略至关重要。未来的研究应该解决这些挑战，推进减少致畸剂暴露的公共卫生计划，并考虑表观遗传分析的伦理影响。CB 表观遗传学研究的进展有望为个性化医疗方法提供支持，可能改变我们对发育编程的理解，并提供新的干预措施，从生命的最早阶段促进终生健康。
