Epigenetic regulation of AXL and risk of childhood asthma symptoms

Clinical Epigenetics

Table 2 Association between average DNA methylation levels at AXL CpG sites and risk of asthma and related symptoms in childhood in the primary study population (N = 246)

	Average of near-TSS CpG sites^a		Average of gene-body CpG sites^b		Average of all 12 CpG sites^c
	OR	p	OR	p	OR	p
Ever MD-diagnosed asthma
Overall	1.10	0.16	1.05	0.71	1.17	0.19
By sex
Boys	1.17	0.10	1.12	0.58	1.34	0.09
Girls	1.03	0.79	1.00	1.00	1.02	0.90
Interaction p value	0.33		0.69		0.28
Ever wheezing
Overall	1.10	0.19	1.72	0.0002	1.46	0.005
By sex
Boys	1.06	0.60	2.70	0.001	1.42	0.12
Girls	1.12	0.20	1.51	0.01	1.48	0.02
Interaction p value	0.69		0.08		0.88
Wheezing in the previous 12 months
Overall	0.97	0.79	2.09	0.002	1.26	0.25
By sex
Boys	0.73	0.10	1.85	0.11	0.75	0.35
Girls	1.16	0.31	2.20	0.005	1.88	0.02
Interaction p value	0.05		0.70		0.03
Bronchitic symptoms in the previous 12 months
Overall	0.99	0.90	1.23	0.14	1.04	0.74
By sex
Boys	0.94	0.51	1.18	0.46	0.92	0.64
Girls	1.05	0.63	1.26	0.19	1.18	0.35
Interaction p value	0.41		0.82		0.32

The primary study population (N = 246) is adjusted for child’s age, sex, ethnicity, methylation plate and city of residence at study recruitment; additionally adjusted for ever had MD-diagnosed asthma for wheezing and bronchitic outcomes. Odds ratios are presented for an increase in 1% of DNA methylation level at birth. For all comparisons, the reference group is children not having the corresponding outcome. Significant p values (< 0.05) are marked in italics
TSS transcription start site
^aAverage of cg10564498, cg03247049, cg12722469, cg02372201, cg19848291 and cg14892768
^bAverage of cg27579501, cg00360107, cg19270050, cg24901063 and cg26521562
^cAverage of all 12 CpG sites

ISSN: 1868-7083