Research group "Impact of epigenetic factors on IVF performance"
Prof. Dr. Dénes Molnár
Prof. Dr. Tibor Ertl
Group activities
The first 1,000 days from conception to the age of 2 years is a crucially important period because it is the time when children undergo life-long development and when the regulatory mechanisms that influence their later health are established.
According to early programming theory, non-physiological hormonal and metabolic influences in utero and in the early postnatal period can cause lasting regulatory changes in the foetus and newborn that increase the risk of developing non-communicable chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life. However, the underlying mechanism is unknown.
A growing body of evidence in the current literature suggests that, despite the fact that the majority of children conceived through In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) are healthy, these children are at increased risk of developing a number of developmental and rare imprinting disorders, as well as body composition changes and the development of chronic non-communicable diseases such as obesity, metabolic syndrome. The background to the development of these developmental disorders and diseases is still unclear, but it is hypothesised that different parental endowments, the underlying aetiology of infertility and the IVF procedure itself may play a role.
During the IVF procedure, several interventions occur at critical periods of fetal development and coincide with the global reprogramming of the fetal epigenome and the development of epigenetic changes. Furthermore, growing evidence suggests that the epigenetic effects of the environment altered by IVF in utero, including DNA methylation and the role of miRNAs in regulating gene expression, may be an important factor in early metabolic programming.
The aim of the research group is to understand how in vitro fertilisation procedures induce epigenetic changes (DNA methylation and miRNA patterning) in the mother and the newborn during intrauterine life. Furthermore, we aim to investigate the effects of different DNA methylation and miRNA patterns on the developmental, metabolic and hormonal status of the mother and the newborn after birth and during a 2-year follow-up period.
Natural and in vitro fertilization conception are the main criteria for study stratification. The planned total number of mother-child pairs is 360.
