{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T11:23:57Z","timestamp":1790681037564,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,6,22]],"date-time":"2019-06-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1561161600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003130","name":"Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["11B1812N"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["11B1812N"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003130","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Nutrition in the postnatal period is associated with metabolic programming. One of the presumed underlying mechanisms involves epigenetic modifications (e.g., DNA methylation). Breastfeeding has an unknown impact on DNA methylation at a young age. Within the Maternal Nutrition and Offspring\u2019s Epigenome (MANOE) study, we assessed the effect of breastfeeding duration on infant growth and buccal methylation in obesity-related genes (n = 101). A significant difference was found between infant growth and buccal RXRA and LEP methylation at 12 months of breastfeeding. For RXRA CpG2 methylation, a positive association was found with duration of breastfeeding (slope = 0.217; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03, 0.330; p &lt; 0.001). For RXRA CpG3 and CpG, mean methylation levels were significantly lower when children were breastfed for 4\u20136 months compared to non-breastfed children (only CpG3), and those breastfed for 7\u20139 months, 10\u201312 months, or 1\u20133 months. On the other hand, higher LEP CpG3 methylation was observed when mothers breastfed 7\u20139 months (6.1%) as compared to breastfeeding for 1\u20133 months (4.3%; p = 0.007) and 10\u201312 months (4.6%; p = 0.04). In addition, we observed that infant weight was significantly lower when children were breastfed for 10\u201312 months. Breastfeeding duration was associated with epigenetic variations in RXRA and LEP at 12 months and with infant biometry\/growth. Our results support the hypothesis that breastfeeding could induce epigenetic changes in infants.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu11061408","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,6,24]],"date-time":"2019-06-24T02:37:40Z","timestamp":1561343860000},"page":"1408","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":43,"title":["The Influence of the Duration of Breastfeeding on the Infant\u2019s Metabolic Epigenome"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4335-4867","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sara","family":"Pauwels","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Environment and Health, KU Leuven\u2014University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium"},{"name":"VITO-Health, 2400 Mol, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lin","family":"Symons","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Environment and Health, KU Leuven\u2014University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Eva-Lynn","family":"Vanautgaerden","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Environment and Health, KU Leuven\u2014University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Manosij","family":"Ghosh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Environment and Health, KU Leuven\u2014University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9350-3816","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Radu Corneliu","family":"Duca","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Environment and Health, KU Leuven\u2014University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5370-7363","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bram","family":"Bekaert","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Imaging &amp; Pathology, KU Leuven\u2014University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium"},{"name":"Laboratory of Forensic Genetics and Molecular Archeology, Department of Forensic Medicine, University Hospitals Leuven, KU Leuven\u2014University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kathleen","family":"Freson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Molecular and Vascular Biology, KU Leuven\u2014University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3838-855X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Inge","family":"Huybrechts","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nutrition and Metabolism Section, International Agency for Research on Cancer, 69372 Lyon CEDEX 08, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3288-7331","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sabine A. S.","family":"Langie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"VITO-Health, 2400 Mol, Belgium"},{"name":"Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gudrun","family":"Koppen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"VITO-Health, 2400 Mol, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Roland","family":"Devlieger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Development and Regeneration, KU Leuven\u2014University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium"},{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospitals of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4764-8835","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lode","family":"Godderis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Environment and Health, KU Leuven\u2014University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium"},{"name":"IDEWE, External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,6,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mameli, C., Mazzantini, S., and Zuccotti, G.V. 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