HDHL-Biomarkers: Early life programming of childhood health: a nutritional and epigenetic investigation (ALPHABET)

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The rising prevalence of obesity, cardiometabolic disease, asthma, osteoporosis and neurodevelopmental disorders over recent decades cannot be fully explained by genetic or adult lifestyle factors. Increasing evidence suggests links to early life environmental factors. If such links exist, then there must be non-genetic mechanisms that retain memory of early life exposures such as suboptimal nutrition during pregnancy or early childhood and that influence health decades later. DNA methylation, the addition of methyl groups to DNA, has been proposed as a possible mechanism because it is responsive to the environment and influences gene expression. Maternal diet during pregnancy is a modifiable behaviour that could impact on maternal, neonatal and child health. However the specific dietary requirements during pregnancy for optimal fetal growth and development are unknown in large part because effects on health only begin to appear decades after exposure. DNA methylation patterns however should be affected almost immediately and, if they are linked to later health outcomes, should remain throughout life. This project will utilise biological samples and data from existing European longitudinal birth cohorts to investigate the complex relationships between maternal diet summarised by indices of diet quality and inflammatory potential, health outcomes and DNA methylation patterns from birth throughout childhood and into adulthood. Hence, we will be able to observe how prenatal diet modifies infant DNA methylation patterns and if and how these modifications are maintained throughout life and relate to health outcomes in adulthood. These observations may aid development of more refined dietary recommendations for promoting optimal health throughout life.