Prenatal tobacco smoke exposure (TSE) has been associated with significant alterations in DNA methylation (DNAm), an epigenetic mechanism with potential functional consequences to child development. T Show more
Prenatal tobacco smoke exposure (TSE) has been associated with significant alterations in DNA methylation (DNAm), an epigenetic mechanism with potential functional consequences to child development. This pilot study aimed to investigate differential DNAm patterns in preterm children with and without prenatal TSE using reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) to interrogate a wider array of sites than in more common approaches, namely microarrays. Buccal swabs were collected from 16 two-year-old children (7 with TSE, 9 without), and DNAm was quantified at over 1.3 million CpG sites. To identify differential DNAm, univariable analyses were first performed and followed by Bayesian beta-binomial hierarchical regression models for sequence count data including adjustment for potential confounders. False Discovery Rate correction was used to account for multiple comparisons. Significant differential methylation was observed at CpG sites within intronic regions of the Show less