Küpers, Leanne K.Fernández-Barrés, SílviaNounu, AayahFriedman, ChloeFore, RubyMancano, GiuliaDabelea, DanaRifas-Shiman, Sheryl L.Mulder, Rosa H.Oken, EmilyJohnson, LauraBustamante Pineda, MarionaJaddoe, Vincent W. V.Hivert, Marie-FranceStarling, Anne P.de Vries, Jeanne H. M.Sharp, Gemma C.Vrijheid, MartineFelix, Janine Frédérique2022-05-192022-05-192022Küpers LK, Fernández-Barrés S, Nounu A, Friedman C, Fore R, Mancano G, Dabelea D, Rifas-Shiman SL, Mulder RH, Oken E, Johnson L, Bustamante M, Jaddoe VWV, Hivert MF, Starling AP, de Vries JHM, Sharp GC, Vrijheid M, Felix JF. Maternal Mediterranean diet in pregnancy and newborn DNA methylation: a meta-analysis in the PACE Consortium. Epigenetics. 2022 Nov;17(11):1419-31. DOI: 10.1080/15592294.2022.20384121559-2294http://hdl.handle.net/10230/53150Higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet during pregnancy is related to a lower risk of preterm birth and to better offspring cardiometabolic health. DNA methylation may be an underlying biological mechanism. We evaluated whether maternal adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with offspring cord blood DNA methylation.We meta-analysed epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) of maternal adherence to the Mediterranean diet during pregnancy and offspring cord blood DNA methylation in 2802 mother-child pairs from five cohorts. We calculated the relative Mediterranean diet (rMED) score with range 0-18 and an adjusted rMED excluding alcohol (rMEDp, range 0-16). DNA methylation was measured using Illumina 450K arrays. We used robust linear regression modelling adjusted for child sex, maternal education, age, smoking, body mass index, energy intake, batch, and cell types. We performed several functional analyses and examined the persistence of differential DNA methylation into childhood (4.5-7.8 y).rMEDp was associated with cord blood DNA methylation at cg23757341 (0.064% increase in DNA methylation per 1-point increase in the rMEDp score, SE = 0.011, P = 2.41 × 10-8). This cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) site maps to WNT5B, associated with adipogenesis and glycaemic phenotypes. We did not identify associations with childhood gene expression, nor did we find enriched biological pathways. The association did not persist into childhood.In this meta-analysis, maternal adherence to the Mediterranean diet (excluding alcohol) during pregnancy was associated with cord blood DNA methylation level at cg23757341. Potential mediation of DNA methylation in associations with offspring health requires further study.application/pdfeng© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15592294.2022.2038412DNA methylationEpigeneticsMediterranean dietCord bloodEpigenome-wide association studyMaternal dietNewbornPrenatal dietinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess