Citation
Potente, Cecilia; Harris, Kathleen Mullan; Chumbley, Justin; Cole, Steven W.; Gaydosh, Lauren; Xu, Wenjia; Levitt, Brandt; & Shanahan, Michael J. (2021). The Early Life Course of Body Weight and Gene Expression Signatures for Disease. American Journal of Epidemiology, 190(8), 1533-1540. PMCID: PMC8489427Abstract
This study examines how body weight patterns through the first four decades of life relate to gene expression signatures of common forms of morbidity, including cardiovascular diseases (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), and inflammation. As part of Wave V of the nationally representative National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (1997-2018) in the United States, mRNA abundance data were collected from peripheral blood (n = 1,132). We use a Bayesian modeling strategy to examine the relative associations between body size at five life stages-birth, adolescence, early adulthood, young adulthood, and adulthood-and gene expression-based disease signatures. We compare life course models that consider critical or sensitive periods, as well as accumulation over the entire period. Our results are consistent with a sensitive period model when examining CVD and T2D gene expression signatures: birth weight has a prominent role for the CVD and T2D signatures (explaining 33.1 % and 22.1 %, respectively, of the total association accounted for by body size), while the most recent adult obesity status (age 33-39) is important for both of these gene expression signatures (24.3 % and 35.1%, respectively). Body size in all life stages was associated with inflammation, consistent with the accumulation model.URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwab049Reference Type
Journal ArticleYear Published
2021Journal Title
American Journal of EpidemiologyAuthor(s)
Potente, CeciliaHarris, Kathleen Mullan
Chumbley, Justin
Cole, Steven W.
Gaydosh, Lauren
Xu, Wenjia
Levitt, Brandt
Shanahan, Michael J.