Cord Blood PRF1 Methylation Patterns and Risk of Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in Infants Findings From the Ulm Birth Cohort

摘要

Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) are a major cause of morbidity in children. DNA methylation provides a mechanism for transmitting environmental effects on the genome, but its potential role in LRTIs is not well studied. We investigated the methylation pattern of an enhancer region of the immune effector gene perforin-1 (PRF1), which encodes a cytolytic molecule of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and natural killer (NK) cells, in cord blood DNA of children recruited in a German birth cohort in association with LRTIs in the first year of life.