Long-term effects of wildfire smoke exposure during early life on the nasal epigenome in rhesus macaques

• Published in: Environment international 2022-01, Vol.158, p.106993-106993, Article 106993
• Main Authors: Brown, Anthony P., Cai, Lucy, Laufer, Benjamin I., Miller, Lisa A., LaSalle, Janine M., Ji, Hong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; adults; air pollution; Animals; bisulfites; California; cAMP-dependent protein kinase; Child, Preschool; childhood; chromatin; Early life; environment; Environmental Exposure - adverse effects; epigenetics; Epigenome; epithelium; Female; females; gene expression; gene expression regulation; genes; Humans; lung function; Macaca mulatta; nose; odds ratio; Rhesus macaques; RNA-sequencing; sequence analysis; smoke; Smoke - adverse effects; synaptogenesis; Whole genome bisulfite sequencing; Wildfire smoke; Wildfires
• ISSN: 0160-4120; 1873-6750
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106993

[Display omitted] •Early life wildfire smoke exposure was associated with epigenetic changes in macaques.•Many of the DNA methylation changes occurred near nervous and immune system genes.•Genes involved in asthma, COPD, and IPF showed changes in DNA methylation.•Genomic locations with DNA methylation changes were enriched for bivalent markers.•FLOT2 showed reduced expression levels in exposed macaques. Wildfire smoke is responsible for around 20% of all particulate emissions in the U.S. and affects millions of people worldwide. Children are especially vulnerable, as ambient air pollution exposure during early childhood is associated with reduced lung function. Most studies, however, have focused on the short-term impacts of wildfire smoke exposures. We aimed to identify long-term baseline epigenetic changes associated with early-life exposure to wildfire smoke. We collected nasal epithelium samples for whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) from two groups of adult female rhesus macaques: one group born just before the 2008 California wildfire season and exposed to wildfire smoke during early-life (n = 8), and the other group born in 2009 with no wildfire smoke exposure during early-life (n = 14). RNA-sequencing was also performed on a subset of these samples. We identified 3370 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) (difference in methylation ≥ 5%, empirical p