Life course socioeconomic status and DNA methylation in genes related to stress reactivity and inflammation: The multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis

The purpose of this study was to examine associations between life course measures of socioeconomic status (SES) and DNA methylation (DNAm) in 18 genes related to stress reactivity and inflammation using a multi-level modeling approach that treats DNAm measurements as repeat measures within an individual.

DNAm and gene expression were assessed in purified monocytes for a random subsample of 1,264 non-Hispanic white, African-American, and Hispanic participants aged 55–94 from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). After correction for multiple testing, we found that low childhood SES was associated with DNAm in 3 stress-related genes ( AVP, FKBP5, OXTR ) and 2 inflammation-related genes ( CCL1, CD1D ), low adult SES was associated with DNAm in one stress-related gene ( AVP ) and 5 inflammation-related genes ( CD1D, F8, KLRG1, NLRP12, TLR3 ), and social mobility was associated with DNAm in 3 stress-related genes ( AVP, FKBP5, OXTR ) and 7 inflammation-related genes ( CCL1, CD1D, F8, KLRG1, NLRP12, PYDC1, TLR3 ).