Tea and coffee consumption in relation to DNA methylation in four European cohorts

Weronica E. Ek*, Elmar W. Tobi, Muhammad Ahsan, Erik Lampa, Erica Ponzi, Soterios A. Kyrtopoulos, Panagiotis Georgiadis, L.H. Lumey, Bastiaan T. Heijmans, Maria Botsivali, Ingvar A. Bergdahl, Torgny Karlsson, Mathias Rask-Andersen, Domenico Palli, Erik Ingelsson, Åsa K. Hedman, Lena Maria Nilsson, Paolo Vineis, Lars Lind, James M. FlanaganÅsa Johansson

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Lifestyle factors, such as food choices and exposure to chemicals, can alter DNAmethylation and lead to changes in gene activity. Two such exposures with pharmacologically active components are coffee and tea consumption. Both coffee and tea have been suggested to play an important role inmodulating disease-risk in humans by suppressing tumour progression, decreasing inflammation and influencing estrogenmetabolism. Thesemechanismsmay bemediated by changes in DNA methylation. To investigate if DNAmethylation in blood is associated with coffee and tea consumption, we performed a genome-wide DNAmethylation study for coffee and tea consumption in four European cohorts (N=3,096). DNAmethylation wasmeasured fromwhole blood at 421,695 CpG sites distributed throughout the genome and analysed inmen and women both separately and together in each cohort. Meta-analyses of the results and additional regional-level analyses were performed. After adjusting formultiple testing, themeta-analysis revealed that two individual CpG-sites,mapping to DNAJC16 and TTC17, were differentiallymethylated in relation to tea consumption in women. No individual sites were associated withmen or with the sex-combined analysis for tea or coffee. The regional analysis revealed that 28 regions were differentiallymethylated in relation to tea consumption in women. These regions contained genes known to interact with estradiolmetabolismand cancer. No significant regions were found in the sex-combined andmale-only analysis for either tea or coffee consumption.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3221-3231
JournalHuman Molecular Genetics
Volume26
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

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