Conserved DNA Methylation Signatures in The Prefrontal Cortex of Newborn and Juvenile Guinea Pigs Following Antenatal Corticosteroid Exposure
Antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) are provided to improve perinatal survival when there is risk of preterm birth. Though evidence suggests increased risk of developing neurobehavioural disorders in exposed offspring, the mechanisms that mediate this relationship remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated the DNA methylation patterns in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of exposed offspring. We hypothesized that differential methylation will be evident at both newborn and juvenile ages. Pregnant guinea pigs were administered saline or betamethasone (1mg/kg) on gestational days 50/51 to mimic a single course of ACS. gDNA was isolated from the PFC of term-born offspring on postnatal day 1 (PND1) and PND14 to identify differentially methylated CpG sites (DMCs) using reduced representative bisulfite sequencing. In the PND1 PFC, 1521 DMCs, annotating to 145 genes were identified following ACS. Identified genes were involved in pathways regulating developmental cellular process. In the PND14 PFC,