The intergenerational association of epigenetic modifications between mothers and offspring, from birth to adolescence
研究母亲与后代之间表观遗传突变负荷（EML）的代际关联，发现该关联在儿童期和青春期显著，但在出生时不显著，提示共享环境而非直接生物传递起主要作用；后代自身EML可预测其成年早期认知能力。
Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation (DNAm), have an important role in human disease development, with early DNAm patterns potentially influencing health outcomes in later life. In this paper, we examine the intergenerational association of epigenetic mutation load (EML), a biomarker of epigenetic instability, identifying DNAm outliers. Using mother-child dyads from a UK-based cohort study, we examine the intergenerational association of EML at three time points: birth, childhood (mean age 7.5), and adolescence (mean age 17). We find significant associations of maternal EML with offspring EML during childhood and adolescence, while this association is absent at birth. This suggests that shared environment, rather than direct biological transmission, might be playing a larger role in this intergenerational correlation. When looking at the association between own EML, and maternal EML, with early-adulthood outcomes, results suggest that own EML predicts worse cognitive abilities later in life, while maternal EML is not directly associated to offspring's outcomes.