title: Salivary DNA Methylation Profiling: Aspects to Consider for Biomarker Identification.
abstract: Is it not more comfortable to spit saliva in a tube than to be pricked with a needle to draw blood to analyse your health and disease risk? Many patients, study participants and (parents of) young children undoubtedly prefer non-invasive and convenient procedures. Such procedures increase compliance rates especially for longitudinal prospective studies. Saliva is an attractive biofluid providing good quality DNA to study epigenetic mechanisms underlying disease across development. In this MiniReview, we will describe the different applications of saliva in the field of epigenetics, focusing on genomewide methylation analysis. Advantages of the use of saliva and its comparability with blood will be discussed, as will the challenges in data processing and interpretation. Knowledge gaps will be identified and suggestions given on how to improve the analysis, making saliva 'the' biofluid of choice for future biomarker initiatives in many different epidemiological and public health studies.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Risk and Health Unit, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium.|Faculty of Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium.
authors.forename: Sabine A S
authors.initials: SAS
authors.lastname: Langie
authors.affiliation: VIB Vesalius Research Center, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Matthieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moisse
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Protein Chemistry, Proteomics and Epigenetic Signaling, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Declerck
authors.affiliation: Environmental Risk and Health Unit, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium.
authors.forename: Gudrun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Koppen
authors.affiliation: Centre Environment & Health, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.|IDEWE, External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work, Heverlee, Belgium.
authors.forename: Lode
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Godderis
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Protein Chemistry, Proteomics and Epigenetic Signaling, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Vanden Berghe
authors.affiliation: The Brain Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA.|Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA.
authors.forename: Stacy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Drury
authors.affiliation: Environmental Risk and Health Unit, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium.|Faculty of Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Boever
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D019175:DNA Methylation; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D006801:Humans; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry*; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D004247:DNA