Hypermethylation of delta-like homolog 1/maternally expressed gene 3 loci in human umbilical veins: insights into offspring vascular dysfunction born after preeclampsia

Background: Increasing epidemiological studies have confirmed the association between maternal preeclampsia and elevated blood pressure in their offspring. Though case–control or cohort studies have demonstrated long-term outcomes for the offspring of preeclampsia, it is still a question that how these changes were caused by genetic reasons or by preeclampsia itself. Objective: In our study, we explored the potential epigenetic regulation of delta-like homolog 1–maternally expressed gene 3 (DLK1–MEG3) region in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), and its connection with endothelium-derived factors. Study design: We recruited 58 singletons born with spontaneous conception (control group) and 67 singletons whose mother with preeclampsia (preeclampsia group), and detected the infants’ blood pressure and growth development index. To explore the potential mechanism, we did real-time PCR to test DLK1–MEG3 imprinted genes and endothelium-derived factors. ELISA confirmed the protein secretion changes between two groups. In addition to confirm epigenetic alteration in preeclampsia HUVEC, we performed pyro-sequencing to detect methylation status of two different methylation regions: intergenic differential methylation region (IG-DMR) and MEG3 DMR which control the expression of DLK1 and MEG3. Furthermore, Person correlation was used to make sure the association of methylation alteration of IG-DMR and endothelium-derived factors. Results: In our study, ...
Source: Journal of Hypertension - Category: Cardiology Tags: ORIGINAL PAPERS: Pregnancy Source Type: research