Abstract
We examined the way body-weight patterns through the first 4 decades of life relate to gene expression signatures of common forms of morbidity, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), and inflammation. As part of wave V of the nationally representative National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (1997–2018) in the United States,mRNA abundance data were collected from peripheral blood (n = 1,132). We used a Bayesian modeling strategy to examine the relative associations between body size at 5 life stages—birth, adolescence, early adulthood, young adulthood, and adulthood—and gene expression–based disease signatures. We compared life-course models that consider critical or sensitive periods, as well as accumulation
over the entire period. Our results are consistent with a sensitive-period model when examining CVD and T2D gene expression signatures: Birth weight has a prominent role for the CVD and T2D signatures (explaining 33.1% and 22.1%, respectively, of the total association accounted for by body size), while the most recent adult obesity status (ages 33–39) is important for both of these gene expression signatures (24.3% and 35.1%, respectively). Body size in all life stages was associated with inflammation, consistent with the accumulation model.
over the entire period. Our results are consistent with a sensitive-period model when examining CVD and T2D gene expression signatures: Birth weight has a prominent role for the CVD and T2D signatures (explaining 33.1% and 22.1%, respectively, of the total association accounted for by body size), while the most recent adult obesity status (ages 33–39) is important for both of these gene expression signatures (24.3% and 35.1%, respectively). Body size in all life stages was associated with inflammation, consistent with the accumulation model.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1533-1540 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | American Journal of Epidemiology |
| Volume | 190 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2021 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding information:M.J.S. and K.M.H. acknowledge support by the National Institutes of Health (grants R01-HD087061, P30-AG017265, R01-AG043404, and R01-AG033590); C.P., M.J.S., J.C., and W.X. acknowledge support by the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zürich. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by K.M.H. and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and K.M.H. at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grant P01-HD31921), with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations.
Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
