Placental epigenetics for evaluation of fetal congenital heart defects: Ventricular septal defect (VSD)

Abstract

Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD), the most common congenital heart defect, is characterized by a hole in the septum between the right and left ventricles. The pathogenesis of VSD is unknown in most clinical cases. There is a paucity of data relevant to epigenetic changes in VSD. The placenta is a fetal tissue and is a potentially useful surrogate for the evaluation of fetal organ development. To understand epigenetic mechanisms that may play a role in the development of VSD, a genome-wide DNA methylation assay of the placentas of 8 term subjects with isolated VSD and no known or suspected genetic syndromes and 10 normal controls was performed using the Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip assay. The study identified a total of 80 highly accurate potential epigenomic markers in 80 genes for the detection of VSD; area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC ROC) = 1.0 with significant 95% CI (FDR) p-values < 0.05. The biological processes and functions for these differentially methylated genes are known to be associated with heart development or heart disease, including cardiac ventricle development (HEY2, ISL1), heart looping (SRF), cardiac muscle cell differentiation (ACTC1, HEY2), cardiac septum development (ISL1), heart morphogenesis (SRF, HEY2, ISL1, HEYL), Notch signaling pathway (HEY2, HEYL), cardiac chamber development (ISL1), and cardiac muscle tissue development (ACTC1, ISL1). The study also identified eight microRNA genes that have the potential to be biomarkers for the early detection of VSD including miR-191, miR-548F1, miR-148A, miR-423, miR-92B, miR-611, miR-2110, and miR-548H4. To our knowledge this is the first report in which placental analysis has been used for determining the pathogenesis of and predicting CHD.