@article {433, title = {Genetic meta-analysis of twin birth weight shows high genetic correlation with singleton birth weight}, journal = {Human Molecular Genetics}, volume = {30}, year = {2021}, pages = {1894{\textendash}1905}, abstract = {

Birth weight (BW) is an important predictor of newborn survival and health and has associations with many adult health outcomes, including cardiometabolic disorders, autoimmune diseases and mental health. On average, twins have a lower BW than singletons as a result of a different pattern of fetal growth and shorter gestational duration. Therefore, investigations into the genetics of BW often exclude data from twins, leading to a reduction in sample size and remaining ambiguities concerning the genetic contribution to BW in twins. In this study, we carried out a genome-wide association meta-analysis of BW in 42 212 twin individuals and found a positive correlation of beta values (Pearson\&$\#$39;s r = 0.66, 95\% confidence interval [CI]: 0.47-0.77) with 150 previously reported genome-wide significant variants for singleton BW. We identified strong positive genetic correlations between BW in twins and numerous anthropometric traits, most notably with BW in singletons (genetic correlation [rg] = 0.92, 95\% CI: 0.66-1.18). Genetic correlations of BW in twins with a series of health-related traits closely resembled those previously observed for BW in singletons. Polygenic scores constructed from a genome-wide association study on BW in the UK Biobank demonstrated strong predictive power in a target sample of Dutch twins and singletons. Together, our results indicate that a similar genetic architecture underlies BW in twins and singletons and that future genome-wide studies might benefit from including data from large twin registers.

}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddab121}, author = {Beck, Jeffrey J and Pool, Ren{\'e} and van de Weijer, Margot and Chen, Xu and Krapohl, Eva and Gordon, Scott D and Nygaard, Marianne and Debrabant, Birgit and Palviainen, Teemu and van der Zee, Matthijs D and Baselmans, Bart and Finnicum, Casey T and Yi, Lu and Lundstr{\"o}m, Sebastian and van Beijsterveldt, Toos and Christiansen, Lene and Heikkil{\"a}, Kauko and Kittelsrud, Julie and Loukola, Anu and Ollikainen, Miina and Christensen, Kaare and Martin, Nicholas G and Plomin, Robert and Nivard, Michel and Bartels, Meike and Dolan, Conor and Willemsen, Gonneke and de Geus, Eco and Almqvist, Catarina and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Mbarek, Hamdi and Ehli, Erik A and Boomsma, Dorret I and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan} } @article {409, title = {Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies in neonates reveals widespread differential DNA methylation associated with birthweight}, journal = {Nature Communications}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, pages = {1893}, abstract = {

Birthweight is associated with health outcomes across the life course, DNA methylation may be an underlying mechanism. In this meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies of 8,825 neonates from 24 birth cohorts in the Pregnancy And Childhood Epigenetics Consortium, we find that DNA methylation in neonatal blood is associated with birthweight at 914 sites, with a difference in birthweight ranging from \−183 to 178 grams per 10\% increase in methylation (PBonferroni\ \<\ 1.06\ x\ 10\−7). In additional analyses in 7,278 participants, \<1.3\% of birthweight-associated differential methylation is also observed in childhood and adolescence, but not adulthood.\ Birthweight-related CpGs overlap with some Bonferroni-significant CpGs that were previously reported to be related to maternal smoking (55/914, p\ = 6.12\ x\ 10\−74) and BMI in pregnancy (3/914, p = 1.13x10\−3), but not with those related to folate levels in pregnancy. Whether the associations that we observe are causal or explained by confounding or fetal growth influencing DNA methylation (i.e. reverse causality) requires further research.

}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-019-09671-3}, author = {K{\"u}pers, Leanne K and Monnereau, Claire and Sharp, Gemma C and Yousefi, Paul and Salas, Lucas A and Ghantous, Akram and Page, Christian M and Reese, Sarah E and Wilcox, Allen J and Czamara, Darina and Starling, Anne P and Novoloaca, Alexei and Lent, Samantha and Roy, Ritu and Hoyo, Cathrine and Breton, Carrie V and Allard, Catherine and Just, Allan C and Bakulski, Kelly M and Holloway, John W and Everson, Todd M and Xu, Cheng-Jian and Huang, Rae-Chi and van der Plaat, Diana A and Wielscher, Matthias and Merid, Simon Kebede and Ullemar, Vilhelmina and Rezwan, Faisal I and Lahti, Jari and van Dongen, Jenny and Langie, Sabine A S and Richardson, Tom G and Magnus, Maria C and Nohr, Ellen A and Xu, Zongli and Duijts, Liesbeth and Zhao, Shanshan and Zhang, Weiming and Plusquin, Michelle and DeMeo, Dawn L and Solomon, Olivia and Heimovaara, Joosje H and Jima, Dereje D and Gao, Lu and Bustamante, Mariona and Perron, Patrice and Wright, Robert O and Hertz-Picciotto, Irva and Zhang, Hongmei and Karagas, Margaret R and Gehring, Ulrike and Marsit, Carmen J and Beilin, Lawrence J and Vonk, Judith M and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Bergstr{\"o}m, Anna and {\"O}rtqvist, Anne K and Ewart, Susan and Villa, Pia M and Moore, Sophie E and Willemsen, Gonneke and Standaert, Arnout R L and H\aaberg, Siri E and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Taylor, Jack A and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Yang, Ivana V and Kechris, Katerina and Nawrot, Tim S and Silver, Matt J and Gong, Yun Yun and Richiardi, Lorenzo and Kogevinas, Manolis and Litonjua, Augusto A and Eskenazi, Brenda and Huen, Karen and Mbarek, Hamdi and Maguire, Rachel L and Dwyer, Terence and Vrijheid, Martine and Bouchard, Luigi and Baccarelli, Andrea A and Croen, Lisa A and Karmaus, Wilfried and Anderson, Denise and de Vries, Maaike and Sebert, Sylvain and Kere, Juha and Karlsson, Robert and Arshad, Syed Hasan and H{\"a}m{\"a}l{\"a}inen, Esa and Routledge, Michael N and Boomsma, Dorret I and Feinberg, Andrew P and Newschaffer, Craig J and Govarts, Eva and Moisse, Matthieu and Fallin, M Daniele and Mel{\'e}n, Erik and Prentice, Andrew M and Kajantie, Eero and Almqvist, Catarina and Oken, Emily and Dabelea, Dana and Boezen, H Marike and Melton, Phillip E and Wright, Rosalind J and Koppelman, Gerard H and Trevisi, Letizia and Hivert, Marie-France and Sunyer, Jordi and Munthe-Kaas, Monica C and Murphy, Susan K and Corpeleijn, Eva and Wiemels, Joseph and Holland, Nina and Herceg, Zdenko and Binder, Elisabeth B and Davey Smith, George and Jaddoe, Vincent W V and Lie, Rolv T and Nystad, Wenche and London, Stephanie J and Lawlor, Debbie A and Relton, Caroline L and Snieder, Harold and Felix, Janine F} } @article {80, title = {A Longitudinal Study of Resting Heart Rate and Violent Criminality in More Than 700 000 Men.}, journal = {JAMA Psychiatry}, volume = {72}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Oct 1}, pages = {971-8}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: Low resting heart rate is a well-replicated physiological correlate of aggressive and antisocial behavior in children and adolescents, but whether low resting heart rate increases the risk of violence and other antisocial and risk-taking behaviors in adulthood has not been studied in representative samples.

OBJECTIVE: To study the predictive association of resting heart rate with violent and nonviolent criminality and with fatal and nonfatal injuries owing to assaults and unintentional injuries in the population.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: We conducted a study of data from several Swedish national registers on 710 264 Swedish men in the general population born from 1958 to 1991, with a follow-up of up to 35.7 years. Outcome data were available and analyzed from January 1, 1973, through December 31, 2009. Resting heart rate was measured together with blood pressure at mandatory military conscription testing at a mean (SD) age of 18.2 (0.5) years.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Violent and nonviolent criminal convictions and medical treatments or deaths owing to assaults and unintentional injuries.

RESULTS: In models adjusted for physical, cardiovascular, psychiatric, cognitive, and socioeconomic covariates, compared with 139 511 men in the highest quintile of the distribution of resting heart rate (\≥83 beats/min), 132 595 men with the lowest quintile (heart rate, \≤60 beats/min) had a 39\% (95\% CI, 35\%-44\%) higher hazard of being convicted of violent crimes and a 25\% (95\% CI, 23\%-28\%) higher hazard of being convicted of nonviolent crimes. The corresponding hazard was 39\% higher for assault injuries (95\% CI, 33\%-46\%) and for unintentional injuries (95\% CI, 38\%-41\%). Further adjustment for cardiorespiratory fitness in a subset of 572 610 men with data from an exercise test did not reduce the associations. Similar associations were found between low systolic blood pressure and violent and nonviolent criminality and for assault injuries when systolic blood pressure was studied instead of resting heart rate in more than 1 million men.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Among men, low resting heart rate in late adolescence was associated with an increased risk for violent criminality, nonviolent criminality, exposure to assault, and unintentional injury in adulthood. Most of these results were replicated with low systolic blood pressure. Resting heart rate and other autonomic measures merit further study in the development and prevention of violence and antisocial behavior.

}, issn = {2168-6238}, doi = {10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.1165}, author = {Latvala, Antti and Kuja-Halkola, Ralf and Almqvist, Catarina and Henrik Larsson and Paul Lichtenstein} }