Purpose: Examining epigenetic patterns is a crucial step in identifying molecular changes of disease pathophysiology, with DNA methylation as the most accessible epigenetic measure. Diet is suggested to affect metabolism and health via epigenetic modifications. Thus, our aim was to explore the association between food consumption and DNA methylation. Methods: Epigenome-wide association studies were conducted in three cohorts: KORA FF4, TwinsUK, and Leiden Longevity Study, and 37 dietary exposures were evaluated. Food group definition was harmonized across the three cohorts. DNA methylation was measured using Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip in KORA and Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip in the Leiden study and the TwinsUK study. Overall, data from 2293 middle-aged men and women were included. A fixed-effects meta-analysis pooled study-specific estimates. The significance threshold was set at 0.05 for false-discovery rate-adjusted p values per food group. Results: We identified significant associations between the methylation level of CpG sites and the consumption of onions and garlic (2), nuts and seeds (18), milk (1), cream (11), plant oils (4), butter (13), and alcoholic beverages (27). The signals targeted genes of metabolic health relevance, for example, GLI1, RPTOR, and DIO1, among others. Conclusion: This EWAS is unique with its focus on food groups that are part of a Western diet. Significant findings were mostly related to food groups with a high-fat content.
FörderungeniMED Helmholtz Association, Germany Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen-German Research Center for Environmental Health - BMBF State of Bavaria Munich Center of Health Sciences (MC-Health) Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, LMUinnovativ European HDHL Joint Programming Initiative funding scheme Joint Programming Initiative a Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life' (JPI-HDHL) DIMENSION project European Union Innovation-Oriented Research Program on Genomics Centre for Medical Systems Biology Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Ageing Netherlands Genomics Initiative, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Projekt DEAL BBMRI-NL Dutch government Wellcome Trust Medical Research Council Versus Arthritis European Union Horizon 2020 Chronic Disease Research Foundation (CDRF) Zoe Global Ltd National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) and Biomedical Research Centre based at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust King's College London European HDHL Joint Programming Initiative funding scheme DIMENSION project (BBSRC) Unilever Colworth