# Social adversities, epigenetics, and the obesity epidemic

> **NIH NIH R01** · NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY RALEIGH · 2020 · $744,958

## Abstract

Project Summary. This application is being submitted in response to PAR-16-355, Social Epigenomics
Research Focused on Minority Health and Health Disparities (R01), and the overarching long-term goal of this
research effort is to learn how to positively influence health trajectories, modify disease risk in racial/ethnic
minorities, and reduce health disparities. This grant is designed to unravel the mechanisms by which social
adversity confers risk for obesity in youth. Obesity was selected as the primary health outcome as it is a health
measure with widening racial/ethnic disparities over the past three decades, and it is a potent predictor of a
host of negative social, educational, vocational, and health outcomes later in life. In this study we propose to
leverage two ongoing prenatal cohorts in Florida and North Carolina, and recruit a sample of 470 pregnant
women and follow their children to 24 months of age. The sample will be enriched for adversity in pregnancy
and approximately evenly divided among Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic subjects. We will assess
the impact of mothers' prenatal stress on measures of DNA methylation in human umbilical vein endothelial
cells (HUVEC), which are homogenous in terms of cellular composition, and widely accepted as an optimal
choice for examining in utero responses to stressors. In the epigenetic analyses we will use both targeted and
big data approaches, using pyrosequencing to measure methylation of 31 differentially methylated regions
(DMRs) that regulate ~90 known imprinted genes, and the Illumina HumanMethylationEPIC (850k) bead chip
for whole epigenome analyses. We will also assess maternal and child postnatal psychosocial stress
exposure, and child growth in the first 24 months of life. Children who are overweight at any point during the
first two years of life have an approximately six-fold increased risk for obesity at five years of age, and risk for
chronic health problems across the lifecycle. The primary hypotheses of this study build on preliminary work
from our group and include: 1) Maternal prenatal stress will be associated with increased DMRs regulating the
expression of imprinted gene insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) and maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3)
DMR, increased methylation in Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase type IV (CAMK4) gene, and
methylation changes in novel CpG sites identified in the 850K analyses; 2) DNA methylation profile changes
associated with prenatal stress will be related to alterations in gene expression; and 3) Methylation markers
identified in Aim 1 will predict growth trajectories and measures of obesity at 24 months of age. Secondary
analyses will examine several moderating factors, including: maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE),
maternal social supports, maternal postnatal psychosocial distress, postnatal offspring ACE, genetic variants,
and relevant confounding variables. The mediating role of inflammatory markers will also b...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9932812
- **Project number:** 5R01MD011746-04
- **Recipient organization:** NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY RALEIGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Cathrine Hoyo
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $744,958
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-18 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9932812

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9932812, Social adversities, epigenetics, and the obesity epidemic (5R01MD011746-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9932812. Licensed CC0.

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