Overcoming Obstacles in Epigenetic Analysis of Human Twins

Background Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., however scientists have failed to learn fully what are the causes of this disease. A promising lead in understanding the origins of cardiovascular disease may be in gene expression changes occurring in utero in response to environmental (non-genetic) factors. Such changes govern whether a gene is turned on or turned off during an individual's lifetime. Twin pregnancies and twin infants help researchers to have a better understanding of whether the gene expression changes are genetic or environmental in origin. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to examine which body tissues (such as hair, fingernails, urine or blood) are needed to accurately study how gene activity is affected by prenatal factors.