DNA methylation profiling in cord blood neonatal monocytes from women with pre-gestational obesity

Obesity represents a global burden with an increasing worldwide prevalence, especially in women of reproductive age. Obesity in women, defined as a body mass index (BMI) > 30 kg/m2, has a worldwide prevalence ~21%, however, it exceeds 30% in countries such as Chile, Mexico, United States, and the United Kingdom. Growing evidence support the notion that pre-gestational obesity confers an increased risk for the development of diabetes, obesity and chronic inflammatory diseases in the offspring later in life. In fact, maternal obesity during gestation is associated with an increased risk of asthma and wheezing during early or late infancy, in terms of medication and need for hospital admission. Here we report changes in DNA methylation at a genomic level in monocytes isolated by adherence from cord blood of neonates born to women with obesity and integrate these changes to reveal the epigenetic programming of immune signaling pathways resulting from maternal obesity. The group of newborn-mother dyads included in this study is a subset selected from our prospective cohort according to a series of criteria: healthy pregnant women receiving care in the 12 public health care centers in La Florida and Puente Alto; singleton pregnancies of ≤ 14 weeks of gestation at first antenatal visit; 18 years or older. The pregnant women were classified as normal weight or with obesity according to their BMI at the first clinical pregnancy control (< 14 weeks of gestation). Exclusion criteria were women with overweight (25 ≤ BMI < 30) at ≤ 14 weeks of gestation, macrosomia, premature birth, cardio-respiratory disorder, genetic and/or neurological defects of the neonate. Secondary exclusion criterion (applied during analysis) was inadequate gestational weight gain according to the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine. All the biological samples and clinical data were coded and anonymized after written consent was obtained. Complete details about the study can be found at ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02903134