M-values from Illumina EPIC BeadChip DNA methylation analyses on DNA in whole blood for children exposed to PFAS

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are widespread synthetic substances with
various adverse health effects. A potential mechanism of toxicity for
PFASs is via epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation. In this
exploratory study with school-age children exposed to PFASs through
drinking water highly contaminated from firefighting foams, we aimed to
investigate whether exposure to PFASs was associated with alteration in
DNA methylation and epigenetic age acceleration. Sixty-three children aged
7–11 years from the Ronneby Biomarker Cohort (Sweden) were included. The
children were either controls with only background exposure (n=32;
perfluorooctane sulfonic acid: median 2.8 and range AQ11 1–5ng/ml) or
those exposed to very high levels of PFASs (n=31; perfluorooctane sulfonic
acid: median 295 and range 190–464ng/ml). These two groups were matched on
sex, age, and body mass index. Genome-wide methylation of whole-blood DNA
was analyzed using the Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip kit.