A group led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine has identified significant differences at the epigenetic level – the chemical tags in DNA that help regulate gene expression – between two clinically distinct forms of acute childhood malnutrition known as edematous severe acute malnutrition (ESAM) and non-edematous SAM (NESAM).
The researchers report in the journal Nature Communications that ESAM, but not NESAM, is characterized by a reduction in methyl chemical tags in DNA and complex changes in gene activity, including both enhanced and reduced gene expression. Some of the genes that lost their methyl tags have been linked to other disorders of nutrition and metabolism, such as abnormal blood sugar and fatty liver disease, conditions that also have been observed in ESAM. The findings support consideration of methyl-group supplementation in ESAM.
