title: An epigenome-wide association analysis of cardiac autonomic responses among a population of welders.
abstract: DNA methylation is one of the potential epigenetic mechanisms associated with various adverse cardiovascular effects; however, its association with cardiac autonomic dysfunction, in particular, is unknown. In the current study, we aimed to identify epigenetic variants associated with alterations in cardiac autonomic responses. Cardiac autonomic responses were measured with two novel markers: acceleration capacity (AC) and deceleration capacity (DC). We examined DNA methylation levels at more than 472,506 CpG probes through the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip assay. We conducted separate linear mixed models to examine associations of DNA methylation levels at each CpG with AC and DC. One CpG (cg26829071) located in the GPR133 gene was negatively associated with DC values after multiple testing corrections through false discovery rate. Our study suggests the potential functional importance of methylation in cardiac autonomic responses. Findings from the current study need to be replicated in future studies in a larger population.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Environmental Health , Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health , Boston , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Jinming
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: b Department of Biostatistics , Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health , Boston , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Zhonghua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: a Department of Environmental Health , Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health , Boston , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Peter E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Umukoro
authors.affiliation: c Department of Community Medicine and Health Care , University of Connecticut Health Center , Farmington , CT , USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cavallari
authors.affiliation: d Department of Epidemiology , New England Research Institute , Watertown , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Shona C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: a Department of Environmental Health , Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health , Boston , MA , USA.|e Department of Epidemiology , Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health , Boston , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Marc G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Weisskopf
authors.affiliation: b Department of Biostatistics , Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health , Boston , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Xihong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: e Department of Epidemiology , Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health , Boston , MA , USA.|f Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit , Beth Israel Deaconess Medical, Center/Harvard Medical School , Boston , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Murray A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Mittleman
authors.affiliation: a Department of Environmental Health , Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health , Boston , MA , USA.|e Department of Epidemiology , Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health , Boston , MA , USA.|g Pulmonary and Critical Care Division , Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School , Boston , MA , USA.
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Christiani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D018899:CpG Islands; D019175:DNA Methylation; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D016678:Genome; D006321:Heart / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000235:genetics; D014896:Welding
chemical_list: C547021:ADGRD1 protein, human; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled
keywords: Acceleration; EWAS; GPR133; deceleration; epigenetics; heart rate