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A Comparison Of Dna Methylation Between Infants Delivered Vaginally And By Caesarian Section

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Module: Molecular micriobiology and epigenetics Dr. Tina Kyndt 19/04/2015 Dries Godderis Faculteit Bio-Ingenieurswetenschappen UGent – Coupure Links 653 – 9000 Gent Paper epigenetics A comparison of DNA-methylation between infants delivered vaginally and by caesarian section 1 Introduction This paper, written for the course ‘Molecular microbiology and epigenetics’ is a summary of two existing articles: ‘Epigenetic modulation at birth - altered DNA-methylation in white blood cells after Caesarean section’ (Schlinzing et al., 2009) and ‘Caesarean delivery and hematopoietic stem cells epigenetics in the newborn infant: implications for future health?’ (Almgren et al., 2014). The objective is to review some possible implications on the health…show more content…
This heightened risk is still unclear, although gut colonization, microbiome exposure, a lack of stress and immune-activating effects of labour, and epigenetic changes have been looked upon as the main cause (Almgren et al., 2014; Cho et al., 2013). Because of the relationship between these diseases and their immunological background, various epigenetic and non-epigenetic studies are being performed. The first article studied global DNAmethylation in leukocytes (Schlinzig et al., 2009) while the latter focused on CD34+ hematopoetic stem cells (Almgren et al., 2014) of newly born infants. Research setup In the first white blood cell study (Schlinzig et al., 2009), the blood of 37 healthy singleton babies was sampled. Exclusion criteria such as multiple pregnancies, smoking, chromosomal disorders or diabetes were sufficiently provided. This blood was collected through the umbilical cord directly after delivery. The DNA of the leukocytes was extracted through the use of specific kits. Afterwards, the DNA was quantified and a luminometric methylation assay was performed. This assay is based upon the digestion of genomic DNA with methylation sensitive and insensitive restriction enzymes, followed by a quantification of the resulting number of sites cut, by making use of a luminometric polymerase extension platform. 200-500ng DNA was cleaved with HpaII + EcoRI restriction enzymes in a
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