Table 1.
Study characteristics.
| Gene-Specific Approach | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Study | Design | Participants | Location | Confounding Variables | Tissue | Tool | Comparison |
| Daniels et al., 2020 [12] | Cohort | 135 Mother–offspring pairs. Mainly white mothers (72.5%) | USA | Maternal age, rs2167270 genotype, pre-pregnancy obesity and gestational diabetes | Placenta | Pyrosequencing, Pyromark MD (Qiagen) | Association between maternal intake of carbohydrates and added sugar intake and DNA methylation |
| Drake et al., 2012 [13] | Cohort | 34 Mother–offspring pairs (40 years old) | Scotland | Neonatal anthropometry: Gestational age at delivery, parity, sex and maternal antenatal BMI Adult anthropometry: blood pressure |
Peripheral blood | Pyrosequencing | Association of maternal adherence to dietary advice of increased protein and reduced carbohydrate intake during pregnancy and DNA methylation |
| Godfrey et al., 2011 [14] | 2 × Cohort 1 | 78/239 Mother–offspring pairs. In the explorative cohort (PAH), the included mothers were primarily white |
UK | Sex, maternal age, adiposity and smoking during pregnancy | Cord blood | Sequenom MassARRAY | Association between maternal intake of carbohydrate, fat and protein and DNA methylation |
| Gonzalez-Nahm et al., 2017 [15] | Cohort | 390 Mother–offspring pairs | USA | Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, maternal age, maternal smoking during pregnancy and maternal education | Cord blood | Pyrosequencing | Association between maternal adherence to a Mediterranean diet and DNA methylation. Participants were grouped to either low adherence, medium or high adherence |
| Marshall et al., 2018 [4] | Cohort | 42 Mother–offspring pairs | USA | NA 2 | Infant blood spots | Pyrosequencing | Association between maternal physical activity and DNA methylation. Participants were grouped according to leisure-time physical activity. ‘High active’ group: average 637.5 min per week versus ‘low active’ group: average 59.5 min per week |
| McCullough et al., 2015 [6] | Cohort | 484 Mother–offspring pairs. 7% mothers with (gestational diabetes) GDM. 46% Black, 69% White, 29% Hispanic | USA | Race/ethnicity and preterm birth | Cord blood | Pyrosequencing (Pyromark Q96 MD pyrosequencer (Qigen)) | Association between maternal sedentary time and DNA methylation. Participants were grouped according to physical activity level (non-sedentary time) in quartiles |
| McCullough et al., 2017 [3] | Cohort | 1057 Mother–offspring pairs. 43% Black, 34% White and 23% Hispanic | USA | Maternal race/ethnicity, BMI at last menstrual period and maternal smoking | Cord blood | Pyrosequencing | Association between maternal intake of a pro-inflammatory diet and DNA methylation. Participants were grouped in dietary inflammatory index (DII) quartiles |
| Miyaso et al., 2017 [16] | Cohort | 91 Mother–offspring pairs. Majority Asian | Japan | Maternal BMI, maternal socioeconomic status (education and income), newborn sex and head circumference | Umbilical cord tissue | MS-HRM analysis | Association between maternal calorie and carbohydrate intake and DNA methylation |
| Genome-wide approach | |||||||
| Study | Design | Participants | Location | Confounding Variables | Tissue | Tool | Comparison |
| Antoun et al., 2020 [17] | RCT | 294 Mother–offspring pairs. Pre-pregnancy BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2–72.3% White, 5.2% Asian, 17.7% Black, 4.8% others | UK | Maternal age, predicted values for white blood cells and nucleated red blood cells composition, smoking, ethnicity, parity and neonate sex | Cord blood | Illumina Human Methylation EPIC Beadchip (850 K) | Effect of a low glycemic index diet, reduced saturated fat intake and increased physical activity intervention during pregnancy compared with standard antenatal care on DNA methylation |
| Geraghty et al., 2020 [18] | RCT | 60 Mother–offspring pairs (5 years old). Inclusion criteria: mothers who had previously given birth to a macrosomic infant. 96.8% White mothers | Ireland | Offspring sex | Saliva | Illumina Human Methylation EPIC Beadchip (850 K) | Effect of a low glycemic index diet intervention during pregnancy (received dietary education session with a research dietitian with dietary advice regarding healthy eating in general and specifically about a low glycemic index diet) compared to antenatal care and no specific dietary advice on DNA methylation |
| Geraghty et al., 2018 [19] | RCT | 60 Mother–offspring pairs Included mothers who had previously given birth to a macrosomic infant. Mean BMI in early pregnancy: 25.75. 96.8% white | Ireland | Offspring sex and gestational age | Cord blood serum | Illumina Human Methylation EPIC Beadchip (850 K) | Effect of a low glycemic index diet intervention during pregnancy (received dietary education session with a research dietitian with dietary advice regarding healthy eating in general and specifically about a low glycemic index diet) compared to antenatal care and no specific dietary advice on DNA methylation |
| Gomez Ribot et al., 2020 [20] | 45 Mother–offspring pairs. 30 Mothers had GDM 3 | Argentina | NA 4 | Placenta | TaqMan detection system | Effect of an intervention with olive oil on miRNA in women with GDM (15 received three tablespoons of olive oil and 15 received only none to one tablespoon a day) and compared to healthy controls (n = 15). All were advised on healthy eating | |
| Jönsson et al., 2021 [21] | RCT | 208 Mothers with obesity and their offspring. Mean pre-pregnancy BMI (SD): Intervention: 34.19 (4.00) kg/m2; control: 34.36 (3.98) kg/m2 |
Denmark | Maternal age, pre-pregnancy BMI, GWG, GA and offspring sex | Cord blood | Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChips | Effect of a physical activity assessed with pedometer and dietary advice (PA + D), or only physical activity (PA) compared to a control group receiving standard of care on DNA methylation |
| Thakali et al., 2020 [22] | Cohort | 150 Mother–offspring pairs; 72 mothers with normal weight and 78 mothers with overweight/obesity | USA | Maternal age at delivery, infant sex and delivery mode | Placenta | Reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) | Association between maternal intake of carbohydrate, protein and fat and DNA methylation |
| Trumpff et al., 2021 [23] | Cohort | 73 Mother–offspring pairs. 2% of mothers had diabetes mellitus. 68% Hispanic, 32% Not Hispanic | USA | Birthweight, sex, pregnancy complications, maternal age, average maternal calorie intake and maternal pre-pregnancy weight | Placenta | Illumina Human Methylation 450 K Beadchip | Association between maternal intake of sugar (in teaspoons equivalents) and DNA methylation |
| Yan et al., 2019 [24] | Cohort | 24/153 5 Mothers with overweight 33.3% had GDM in case group, 16.7% had GDM in control group |
China | Maternal age, BMI, Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR), dietary GI at baseline, GDM, gestational age at delivery and gestational weight gain | Placenta | Illumina Human Methylation 450 K Beadchip | Association between changes in maternal glycemic index intake and DNA methylation |
1 One exploratory (PAH) and one replication cohort (SWS). 2 No covariates were included in the analyses due to the matched design and small sample size. 3 15 mothers with GDM in intervention, 15 mothers with GDM in control group (30 randomized) and 15 healthy controls. 4 No adjustments for potential confounding variables were performed. BMI, body mass index; DII, dietary inflammatory index; GA, gestational age; GDM, gestational diabetes mellitus; GWG, gestational weight gain; RCT, Randomized Controlled Trials; UK, United Kingdom; USA, United States of America. 5 Discovery sample/replication sample.