Aim: To describe the association between adiposity and repetitive element DNA methylation in healthy postmenopausal women.
Patients & methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using baseline information from 289 women who participated in the Alberta Physical Activity and Breast Cancer Prevention trial.
Results: After adjusting for important confounders, long interspersed nuclear element-1 methylation was positively associated with intra-abdominal fat area (p = 0.03), body fat percent (p = 0.048), fat mass (p = 0.01), waist circumference (p = 0.03), hip circumference (p = 0.001), BMI (p = 0.03), current weight (p = 0.002), weight at age 20 (p = 0.02) and adulthood weight gain (p = 0.03). No significant associations were found between any of the adiposity measures and Alu methylation.
Conclusion: Current and historical adiposity measures are positively associated with long interspersed nuclear element-1 methylation in healthy postmenopausal women.
Keywords: Alu; DNA methylation; LINE-1; adiposity; body fat; postmenopausal; repetitive elements.