Targeted DNA methylation profile in the rat liver. Targeted DNA methylation profile in the rat liver

Nutrigenomics which concerns the influence of dietary on genome function is nowadays the field of interest of many researchers. The impact of the environmental factors, in particular female diet in pregnancy and/or lactation period can result in changes of development and functioning of progeny organism. This phenomenon is called ”fetal programming”. The dietary of pregnant female may results in epigenetic modification changes like DNA methylation which can modify the gene expression profile. In this project we characterized the hepatic DNA methylation level in over 2000 CpG islands of genes involved in sex pathways. The samples originated from fetuses from two groups: derived from dams receiving calorie restricted diet versus control dams.