Genome wide DNA methylation analysis in spontaneous abortion between ART and natural conceived pregnancies

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K20157
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Obstetrics and gynecology
• Research Institution: International University of Health and Welfare
• Principal Investigator: Kusumi Maki 国際医療福祉大学, 臨床医学研究センター, 講師 (70470002)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: ART / epigenetics / DNA methylation / 体外培養 / ゲノム構造異常 / 初期胚

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Genome structure and genome wide DNA methylation were analyzed in chorionic villi of spontaneous abortion. There were many miscarriages with no genome structural abnormality in the ART group, suggesting the possibility of miscarriage due to other factors (30% and 8.6%). Clarifying the features of miscarriage specimens by adding an artificial pregnancy abortion cases revealed some CpG sites exhibiting hypermethylation at no random in the ART group. When clusters were made with the top 1000 ranked sum, we found that some ART cases are clustered. The half of the CpG sites was consolidated in the region of both activated and suppressive modification related to the maintenance of stemness or differentiation in the genomic region. It is assumed that those CpG sites show low methylation from gamate to early embryo and is suggested to be caused by abnormality of de novo methylation after fertilization.

Free Research Field

ART, epigenetics