A Study of the Placental Methylome of Dichorionic and Monochorionic Monozygotic Twin Pairs to Establish a Timeline of Epigenetic Programming

Ghent University Hospital (UZ)

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Twin Placenta

Treatments: Other: saliva sample; Other: questionnaire

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05733065

BC-08264

Details and patient eligibility

About

The timing of the moment of splitting is variable amongst twins and can be inferred from chorionicity, allowing a time-line of early environmental influences to be established. Monozygotic twins can remain discordant for growth and health outcomes throughout life, implying the prenatal establishment of a regulatory program with effects that persist into adulthood.

Objective: To investigate the effect of the moment of splitting (chorionicity) on the placental and saliva (in adulthood) methylome and cardiometabolic disease risk in monozygotic twin pairs. Birth weight discordance will be used as an indicator of prenatal environmental heterogeneity between the twins.

Full description

Rationale: The developmental origins of health and disease (DoHaD) hypothesis, states that antenatal and early life exposure to a suboptimal environment can predispose for adverse health outcomes in adult life, such as cardiometabolic disease. Modification of the epigenome, and more specifically the methylome, seems a plausible mechanism for this. It has been shown that a suboptimal early environment, such as famine during the periconception period, can perturb DNA methylation signatures of the offspring. Furthermore, the preimplantation period is likely to represent a critical window for the establishment of optimal DNA methylation as epigenetic reprogramming takes place during this time. The precise influence of environmental factors during this time is incompletely understood; human studies of the preimplantation period are complicated by an inaccessibility of samples and the high variability of the environment induced by maternal factors. Here, the study of monozygotic twins can be employed. Although monozygotic twins are genetically identical, they can differ phenotypically, for example in birth weight. Phenotype and methylome differences attributable to genetic and maternal differences can be ruled out, meaning that intra-pair differences must be a result of variation in their prentatal environment. Furthermore, the moment of splitting defines the point from which twins can experience environmental differences. The timing of the moment of splitting is variable amongst twins and can be inferred from chorionicity, allowing a time-line of early environmental influences to be established. Monozygotic twins can remain discordant for growth and health outcomes throughout life, implying the prenatal establishment of a regulatory program with effects that persist into adulthood.

Objective: To investigate the effect of the moment of splitting (chorionicity) on the placental and saliva (in adulthood) methylome and cardiometabolic disease risk in monozygotic twin pairs. Birth weight discordance will be used as an indicator of prenatal environmental heterogeneity between the twins.

Study design: prospective twin cohort - using a subset of twins from the East Flanders Prospective Twin Study (EFPTS).

Main study parameters/endpoints: Placenta (birth) and saliva (adulthood) DNA methylation. Questionnaire-based adult anthropometric measurements and cardiometabolic disease risk data.

Nature and extent of the burden and risks associated with participation, benefit and group relatedness: There is no risk or benefit to participants associated with participation in this study as DNA methylation analyses cannot be used to identify disease (susceptibility). Placental tissue samples were already collected at birth and stored in a biobank. Further samples for DNA methylation analysis will be collected non-invasively by saliva sample. There is a minor time burden associated with participation in questionnaire-based data collection at the adult time point, however this is not expected to be excessive.

Enrollment: 240 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• natural conceived twin pairs born before 2002,
• with known birth weight, sex and gestational age,
• where both twins were live born without congenital abnormality
• Only pairs where both twins consent to inclusion in the study will be included.

Exclusion criteria

• Twins born after pregnancies complicated by conditions such as TTTS will be excluded.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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240 participants in 1 patient group

Monozygotic Twin

Other group

Description:

we will include natural conceived twin pairs born before 2002, with known birth weight, sex and gestational age, and where both twins were live born without congenital abnormality. Twins born after pregnancies complicated by conditions such as TTTS will be excluded. MZ twins pairs will be ranked according to intra-pair birth weight difference. Next, we intend to include the 120 most discordant monozygotic twin pairs, stratified by chorionicity (1:1 ratio) and in the case of DC by fusion of the placentas (1:1 ratio). Only pairs where both twins consent to inclusion in the study will be included.

Treatment:

Other: saliva sample

Other: questionnaire