The intergenerational association of epigenetic modifications between mothers and offspring, from birth to adolescence

COSTI, Chiara; MENTA, Giorgia; Fiorito, Giovanni; D'AMBROSIO, Conchita

doi:10.1016/j.ehb.2025.101509

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The intergenerational association of epigenetic modifications between mothers and offspring, from birth to adolescence

COSTI, Chiara; MENTA, Giorgia; Fiorito, Giovanni et al.

2025 • In Economics and Human Biology, 58, p. 101509

Peer reviewed

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https://hdl.handle.net/10993/65157

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10.1016/j.ehb.2025.101509

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Keywords :

Epigenetic Mutation Load, Epigenetic Instability, Intergenerational association, ALSPAC

Abstract :

[en] Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation (DNAm), have an important role in human disease development, with early DNAm patterns potentially influencing health outcomes in later life. In this paper, we examine the intergenerational association of epigenetic mutation load (EML), a biomarker of epigenetic instability, identifying DNAm outliers. Using mother-child dyads from a UK-based cohort study, we examine the intergenerational association of EML at three time points: birth, childhood (mean age 7.5), and adolescence (mean age 17). We find significant associations of maternal EML with offspring EML during childhood and adolescence, while this association is absent at birth. This suggests that shared environment, rather than direct biological transmission, might be playing a larger role in this intergenerational correlation. When looking at the association between own EML, and maternal EML, with early-adulthood outcomes, results suggest that own EML predicts worse cognitive abilities later in life, while maternal EML is not directly associated to offspring’s outcomes.

Disciplines :

Human health sciences: Multidisciplinary, general & others

Author, co-author :

COSTI, Chiara ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences > Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences > Team Conchita D AMBROSIO

MENTA, Giorgia ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences > Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences > Team Conchita D AMBROSIO

Fiorito, Giovanni

D'AMBROSIO, Conchita ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (DBCS) > Health and Behaviour

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

The intergenerational association of epigenetic modifications between mothers and offspring, from birth to adolescence

Publication date :

September 2025

Journal title :

Economics and Human Biology

ISSN :

1570-677X

Publisher :

Elsevier BV

Volume :

Pages :

101509

Peer reviewed :

Peer reviewed

Additional URL :

https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S1570677X25000425?httpAccept=text/xml

FnR Project :

FNR13650569 - ALAC - Age Acceleration And The Life Course, 2019 (01/09/2020-31/08/2023) - Conchita D'ambrosio

Funders :

Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg
Medical Research Council
University of Bristol
Wellcome

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