<p>Preeclampsia (PE) is a hypertensive, multi-system disorder of pregnancy that significantly impacts maternal and infant morbidity/mortality across the globe, as it increases risk of cardiovascular disease and remains a leading killer of women and babies. Despite PE's significant impact on morbidity/mortality, there are no clinically reliable biomarkers that predict PE. DNA methylation, a dynamic regulator of gene expression, represents a mechanism that is known to be impacted by the environment. Because PE stems from a dysfunctional placenta that releases debris into the maternal circulation, we hypothesized that the in-vivo environment created by the dysfunctional placenta will impact DNA methylation in the maternal circulation, and that these blood-based methylation profiles would serve as a systemic biomarker of the maternal response to placental dysfunction. Our overall objective of this pilot study was to longitudinally characterize DNA methylation profiles across the three trimesters of pregnancy in the maternal blood at time points before and after clinically overt PE using a targeted (endoglin and endoglin-related genes) and a discovery-based approach. For this pilot study, 28 normotensive control participants and 28 PE case participants enrolled in the NICHD funded pregnancy study entitled <q>Prenatal Exposures and Preeclampsia Prevention: Mechanisms of Preeclampsia and the Impact of Obesity</q> (PEPP3; P01HD30367) were 1:1 frequency matched on self-reported race, pre-pregnancy BMI, smoking history, and gestational age at sample collection. Methylation data were collected with the Infinium® MethylationEPIC Beadchip. Methylation assay data collection were carried out at Johns Hopkins University Genetic Resources Core Facility, The SNP Center, Baltimore, MD, USA.</p>

DNA Methylomic Profiling of Preeclampsia Across Pregnancy