npj Genomic Medicine (Jun 2022)

Methylome-wide analysis of IVF neonates that underwent embryo culture in different media revealed no significant differences

  • Rebekka M. Koeck,
  • Florence Busato,
  • Jorg Tost,
  • Dimitri Consten,
  • Jannie van Echten-Arends,
  • Sebastiaan Mastenbroek,
  • Yvonne Wurth,
  • Sylvie Remy,
  • Sabine Langie,
  • Tim S. Nawrot,
  • Michelle Plusquin,
  • Rossella Alfano,
  • Esmée M. Bijnens,
  • Marij Gielen,
  • Ron van Golde,
  • John C. M. Dumoulin,
  • Han Brunner,
  • Aafke P. A. van Montfoort,
  • Masoud Zamani Esteki

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41525-022-00310-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

Read online

Abstract A growing number of children born are conceived through in vitro fertilisation (IVF), which has been linked to an increased risk of adverse perinatal outcomes, as well as altered growth profiles and cardiometabolic differences in the resultant individuals. Some of these outcomes have also been shown to be influenced by the use of different IVF culture media and this effect is hypothesised to be mediated epigenetically, e.g. through the methylome. As such, we profiled the umbilical cord blood methylome of IVF neonates that underwent preimplantation embryo development in two different IVF culture media (G5 or HTF), using the Infinium Human Methylation EPIC BeadChip. We found no significant methylation differences between the two groups in terms of: (i) systematic differences at CpG sites or regions, (ii) imprinted sites/genes or birth weight-associated sites, (iii) stochastic differences presenting as DNA methylation outliers or differentially variable sites, and (iv) epigenetic gestational age acceleration.