Adolescents from disadvantaged neighborhoods show gene regulation differences

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-06/du-afd061920.php


News Release 19-Jun-2020
Duke University


The neighborhood a child grows up in may influence their health for years to come in previously invisible ways.

A long-term study of 2,000 children born in England and Wales and followed to age 18 found that young adults raised in communities marked by more economic deprivation, physical dilapidation, social disconnection and danger display differences in the epigenome -- the proteins and chemical compounds that regulate the activity of their genes.

The researchers say the study lends support to the hypothesis that gene regulation may be one biological pathway through which neighborhood disadvantage "gets under the skin" to engender long-term health disparities.

The differences were identified in genes previously linked to chronic inflammation, exposure to tobacco smoke, outdoor air pollution, and lung cancer and may put these people at risk for poorer health later in life. Epigenetic differences remained even after taking into account the socioeconomic conditions of children's families, and were seen in young adults who did not smoke or display evidence of high inflammation.

"These findings may help explain how long-term health disparities among communities emerge," said Aaron Reuben, a Ph.D. candidate at Duke who was the study's lead author. "They also tell us that children who look the same physically and are otherwise healthy may enter adulthood wired at the cellular level for different outcomes in the future."

It's not possible to know yet whether these differences are lasting or could be modified, Reuben said. "That is something we will need to continue to evaluate."

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