{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,4]],"date-time":"2026-08-04T11:50:37Z","timestamp":1785844237461,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,4]],"date-time":"2026-08-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785801600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000062","name":"National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["P30DK092926"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["P30DK092926"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000062","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["P30DK092926"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["P30DK092926"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/00adh9b73","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award","award":["2007092"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2007092"]}]},{"name":"NIH Mentored Scientist Award","award":["K08-HD045609"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["K08-HD045609"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Epigenomes"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Large-for-gestational-age (LGA) birth is associated with adverse perinatal outcomes and increased risk of metabolic disease later in life. Despite these risks, epigenetic studies of LGA remain limited, particularly those using umbilical cord blood DNA methylation (DNAm) as the tissue of interest. Methods: We conducted an epigenome-wide association study of cord blood DNAm in a nested case\u2013control sample from the Gestational Regulators of Weight (GROW) cohort. The analysis included 28 term LGA infants and 63 term appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) controls. DNAm was measured using the Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip. Epigenome-wide association analyses were performed with adjustment for residual principal components and estimated cord blood cell-type proportions. Results: No CpG sites reached statistical significance after false discovery rate correction. Twenty-four CpGs showed nominal associations with LGA status at p-value &lt; 1.00 \u00d7 10\u22124, including five CpGs with absolute methylation differences greater than 0.05. Among annotated loci, the strongest interpretable signals included cg06750897 in PBX1 (\u0394\u03b2 = 0.110, p-value = 1.70 \u00d7 10\u22125) and two nearby CpGs in SMAD3, cg23731272 (\u0394\u03b2 = 0.111, p-value = 4.31 \u00d7 10\u22125) and cg02486855 (\u0394\u03b2 = 0.109, p-value = 9.45 \u00d7 10\u22125). These two SMAD3 CpGs showed concordant hypermethylation in LGA infants and formed a candidate regional methylation signal in exploratory targeted regional analysis. Conclusions: In this pilot study, LGA was associated with modest cord blood DNAm differences, although no CpG sites reached genome-wide significance. The strongest interpretable signals involved PBX1 and SMAD3, suggesting candidate loci for further evaluation in larger studies of fetal overgrowth.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/epigenomes10030051","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,4]],"date-time":"2026-08-04T10:38:08Z","timestamp":1785839888000},"page":"51","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Cord Blood DNA Methylation and Large-for-Gestational-Age Birth: A Pilot Epigenome-Wide Study in the GROW Cohort"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7796-2441","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiaoyu","family":"Liang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, MSU College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, 909 Wilson Road Room B645, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-9371-4727","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Christopher","family":"Doumith","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Children\u2019s Hospital of Michigan, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0093-823X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dawn P.","family":"Misra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, MSU College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, 909 Wilson Road Room B645, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9566-5579","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vinod K.","family":"Misra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Discipline of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859, USA"},{"name":"Division of Genetic, Genomic, and Metabolic Disorders, Children\u2019s Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI 48201, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Emmerich, S.D., Fryar, C.D., Stierman, B., and Ogden, C.L. (2024). Obesity and Severe Obesity Prevalence in Adults: United States, August 2021\u2013August 2023, CDC. NCHS Data Brief.","DOI":"10.15620\/cdc\/159281"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"614","DOI":"10.1007\/s10995-008-0388-3","article-title":"Prepregnancy obesity prevalence in the United States, 2004\u20132005","volume":"13","author":"Chu","year":"2009","journal-title":"Matern. 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