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Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Moderate Prenatal Alcohol Exposure and Quantification of Social Behavior in Adult Rats
Published on: December 14, 2014
Time- and sex-dependent associations between prenatal alcohol exposure and placental global DNA methylation
Yuk Jing Loke1, Evelyne Muggli2,3, Linh Nguyen1
1Environmental & Genetic Epidemiology Research, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, the Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia.
Aim:
Epigenetic changes, in particular in the placenta, may mediate the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) on children's health. We examined the relationship between PAE patterns, based on dose and timing, and placental global DNA methylation.
Methods:
Using linear regression analysis, we examined the association between different PAE categories and placental global DNA methylation (n = 187), using the proxy measure of Alu-interspersed repeats.
Results:
Following adjustment for important covariates, we found no evidence of an association between PAE and placental global DNA methylation overall. However, when stratifying by newborn sex, PAE throughout pregnancy was associated with higher placental global DNA methylation (1.5%; p = 0.01) of male newborns.
Conclusion:
PAE may have sex-specific effects on placental global DNA methylation if alcohol is consumed throughout pregnancy.
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