An epigenome-wide analysis of cord blood DNA methylation reveals sex-specific effect of exposure to bisphenol A

Sci Rep. 2019 Aug 26;9(1):12369. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-48916-5.

Abstract

Exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) in utero is associated with adverse health outcome of the offspring. Differential DNA methylation at specific CpG sites may link BPA exposure to health impacts. We examined the association of prenatal BPA exposure with genome-wide DNA methylation changes in cord blood in 277 mother-child pairs in the Hokkaido Study on Environment and Children's Health, using the Illumina HumanMethylation 450 BeadChip. We observed that a large portion of BPA-associated differentially methylated CpGs with p-value < 0.0001 was hypomethylated among all newborns (91%) and female infants (98%), as opposed to being hypermethylated (88%) among males. We found 27 and 16 CpGs with a false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05 in the analyses for males and females, respectively. Genes annotated to FDR-corrected CpGs clustered into an interconnected genetic network among males, while they rarely exhibited any interactions in females. In contrast, none of the enrichment for gene ontology (GO) terms with FDR < 0.05 was observed for genes annotated to the male-specific CpGs with p < 0.0001, whereas the female-specific genes were significantly enriched for GO terms related to cell adhesion. Our epigenome-wide analysis of cord blood DNA methylation implies potential sex-specific epigenome responses to BPA exposure.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Benzhydryl Compounds / adverse effects*
  • CpG Islands / genetics
  • DNA Methylation / genetics*
  • Epigenome*
  • Female
  • Fetal Blood / metabolism*
  • Gene Ontology
  • Gene Regulatory Networks
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Male
  • Phenols / adverse effects*
  • Pregnancy
  • Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / genetics*
  • Sex Characteristics*

Substances

  • Benzhydryl Compounds
  • Phenols
  • bisphenol A