We report that the DNA methylation profile of a child’s neonatal whole blood can be significantly influenced by his or her mother’s neonatal blood lead levels (BLL). We recruited 35 mother-infant pairs in Detroit and measured the whole blood lead (Pb) levels and DNA methylation levels at over 450,000 loci from current blood and neonatal blood from both the mother and the child. We found that mothers with high neonatal BLL correlate with altered DNA methylation at 564 loci in their children’s neonatal blood. Our results suggest that Pb exposure during pregnancy affects the DNA methylation status of the fetal germ cells, which leads to altered DNA methylation in grandchildren’s neonatal dried blood spots. This is the first demonstration that an environmental exposure in pregnant mothers can have an epigenetic effect on the DNA methylation pattern in the grandchildren.

Aims In this paper, we tested the hypothesis that early life lead (Pb) exposure associated DNA methylation (5mC) changes are dependent on the sex of the child and can serve as biomarkers for Pb exposure. Methods In this pilot study, we measured the 5mC profiles of DNA extracted from dried blood spots (DBS) in a cohort of 43 children (25 males and 18 females; ages from 3 months to 5 years) from Detroit. Result & Discussion We found that the effect of Pb-exposure on the 5-mC profiles can be separated into three subtypes: affected methylation loci which are conserved irrespective of the sex of the child (conserved); affected methylation loci unique to males (male-specific); and affected methylation loci unique to females (female-specific).

<p>El objetivo del presente estudio fue clasificar el mastocitoma de acuerdo a su grado histológico, a partir de muestras provenientes de necropsias y biopsias caninas diagnosticadas por histopatología en el Laboratorio de Patología Veterinaria de la Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú, a través de un estudio retrospectivo para el periodo 2000-2006. Se encontraron 40 casos de mastocitomas (4.5%) en 881 neoplasias caninas. Al clasificar los mastocitomas según su grado histológico se encontró que el 42.5% fueron de grado I (bien diferenciado), el 47.5% de grado II (moderadamente diferenciado) y el 10% de grado III (poco diferenciado). Asimismo, el 63.9% (23/36) de los casos se encontraron en perros Bóxer.</p>