Research
Hormonal
Genetic variants can confound the association between DNA methylation and metabolic traits, creating apparent epigenetic links that are actually driven by genetics.
When looking at epigenetic studies, it's crucial to distinguish between true epigenetic changes and those driven by genetics. This study shows that some apparent epigenetic links to metabolism are actually just reflections of your DNA sequence. Always check if genetic confounders have been accounted for.
StrongQualifiesVERY_HIGH confidence
We report eight CpG loci at genome-wide significance that have a genetic variant as confounder (P = 3.9 x 10^-20 to 2.0 x 10^-108, r2 = 0.036 to 0.221).
Why this rating
Very strong statistical evidence (extremely low P-values), validated with multiple methods.
Source
Epigenetics meets metabolomics: an epigenome-wide association study with blood serum metabolic traits
Ann-Kristin Petersen et al. · Human Molecular Genetics · 2013
DOI 10.1093/hmg/ddt430
cohort · n=1814Cited 189×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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