DNA methylation alters transcriptional rates of differentially expressed genes and contributes to pathophysiology in mice fed a high fat diet.

Objective: Overnutrition can alter gene expression patterns through epigenetic mechanisms that may persist through generations. However, it is less clear if overnutrition, for example a high fat diet, modifies epigenetic control of gene expression in adults, or by what molecular mechanisms, or if such mechanisms contribute to the pathology of the metabolic syndrome. Here we test the hypothesis that a high fat diet alters hepatic DNA methylation, transcription and gene expression patterns, and explore the contribution of such changes to the pathophysiology of obesity.

Comparative evaluation of the Minimally-Invasive Karyotyping (MINK) algorithm for non-invasive prenatal testing.

Minimally Invasive Karyotyping (MINK) was communicated in 2009 as a novel method for the non-invasive detection of fetal copy number anomalies in maternal plasma DNA. The original manuscript illustrated the potential of MINK using a model system in which fragmented genomic DNA obtained from a trisomy 21 male individual was mixed with that of his karyotypically normal mother at dilutions representing fetal fractions found in maternal plasma. Although it has been previously shown that MINK is able to non-invasively detect fetal microdeletions, its utility for aneuploidy detection in maternal plasma has not previously been demonstrated.

Correction: High Levels of Sample-to-Sample Variation Confound Data Analysis for Non-Invasive Prenatal Screening of Fetal Microdeletions.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

High Levels of Sample-to-Sample Variation Confound Data Analysis for Non-Invasive Prenatal Screening of Fetal Microdeletions.

Our goal was to test the hypothesis that inter-individual genomic copy number variation in control samples is a confounding factor in the non-invasive prenatal detection of fetal microdeletions via the sequence-based analysis of maternal plasma DNA. The database of genomic variants (DGV) was used to determine the "Genomic Variants Frequency" (GVF) for each 50kb region in the human genome. Whole genome sequencing of fifteen karyotypically normal maternal plasma and six CVS DNA controls samples was performed.

Comprehensive analysis of preeclampsia-associated DNA methylation in the placenta.

Background: A small number of recent reports have suggested that altered placental DNA methylation may be associated with early onset preeclampsia. It is important that further studies be undertaken to confirm and develop these findings. We therefore undertook a systematic analysis of DNA methylation patterns in placental tissue from 24 women with preeclampsia and 24 with uncomplicated pregnancy outcome.