Methylation in Newborn Infants (MINI) Study:Optimising methodology v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
DNA Methylation in Newborn Infants (MINI) Study-Optimising methodology
IRAS ID
161415
Contact name
Vimal Vasu
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Breast feeding is an important public health intervention and is of long term health benefit to both mother and infant. However, rates of exclusive breastfeeding in the UK are low (24% at 6 weeks of age, 17% at 3 months of age, and 5% at 6 months). Put simply, the public health message is not getting through. This has ramifications not only for an individuals’ health but also economically through the strain on the health service as it struggles to deal with potentially preventable disorders.
Nutrition and other environmental factors can influence our genetic make-up. This is referred to as epigenetics. Put another way, epigenetics is where our genes acquire changes in them as a result of environmental influence.
We propose to conduct a pilot study to help establish whether DNA methylation status (a marker of epigenetic change) can be established from analysis of neonatal urine samples that are collected for clinical purposes. This would enable our team to use urine DNA methylation status as a non invasive tool to evaluate infant health. It has already been achieved in the adult population where urine DNA methylation status is successfully used to detect cancers. Our hope is that by performing a pilot study to evaluate and optimise this non invasive technique, we will be able to proceed with a prospective longitudinal research study (subject to REC approval) exploring relationships between infant urine DNA methylation status and infant feeding mode with the specific hypothesis that increased duration of breast feeding is associated with a reduction in global DNA methylation. We believe this will be an important step in advancing the clarity of the public health message about the benefits of human breast milk for health as it will provide direct evidence of benefit.
REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SW/0128
Date of REC Opinion
7 May 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion