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Prenatal opioid exposure and the early life epigenome: results from ECHO
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Prenatal opioid exposure and the early life epigenome: results from ECHO

Rose Schrott, Henri Garrison-Desany, Lyndsay Avalos, Carrie V. Breton, Dana M. Dabelea, Karen Derefinko, Anne Dunlop, Fang Fang, Abigail Gaylord, Torie Grant, …
Journal of substance use, v 30(3), pp 484-491
2025
PMID: 40589795
url
https://doi.org/10.1080/14659891.2024.2356569View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology Substance Abuse
BackgroundPrenatal opioid exposure has been associated with adverse child health outcomes. Changes to the epigenome provide a plausible mechanism through which effects may be elicited. We investigated whether prenatal opioid exposure was associated with locus-specific changes in umbilical cord blood DNA methylation (DNAm) and gestational epigenetic age.MethodsWe leveraged data from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes cohort. Prenatal opioid data was obtained from maternal self-report and/or medical record data. DNAm measures were generated from blood biospecimens collected at birth. Linear regression models tested associations between prenatal maternal opioid exposure and epigenetic outcomes in crude and fully adjusted models.ResultsWe tested the association between prenatal opioid exposure and cord blood DNAm at 15 CpG sites in 385 (n = 25 exposed, n = 360 unexposed) individuals from three cohorts. We identified a single CpG site (cg14303187) that was nominally associated with prenatal opioid exposure (p = 0.02, beta = -0.012; 95% CI, -0.023 to -0.0012). No significant associations between exposure and gestational epigenetic age were found (n = 716 individuals from eight cohorts; n = 29 exposed, n = 687 unexposed).ConclusionsWe identified a nominally significant association between prenatal opioid exposure and DNAm at one CpG site. Future studies should continue investigating the effect of this exposure on the epigenome.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Substance Abuse
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