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Journal of Nutrition and Human Health | Volume 3
May 23-24, 2019 | Vienna, Austria
Joint Event
2
nd
International Conference on
Gastroenterology and Digestive Disor
ders
17
th
International Conference on
Nutrition and Fitness
&
Background:
Although diet is key to successful weight
loss, dietary intervention studies have reported large
variability of weight loss response between subjects,
ranging from highly successful to highly unsuccessful. The
aim of this study was to investigate whether epigenetic
factors may affect individual weight loss responses to diet
interventions.
Objectives:
1) Determine the effect of a healthy low-fat
(HLF) diet vs a healthy low-carbohydrate (HLC) diet on DNA
methylation (DNAm); 2) Assess whether baseline DNAmmay
predict individual weight loss response to a diet intervention.
Methods:
DNAm was analyzed in peripheral blood
lymphocytes (PBL) samples collected at baseline and 12
months of the DIETFITS randomized clinical trial with 609
obese non-diabetic subjects randomly assigned to a HLF or
a HLC diet (Gardner CD
et al.,
2018, JAMA). Whole genome
bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) was carried out in a discovery
cohort consisting of the eight “biggest losers” defined as
those who lost the most weight at six months, and who
also sustained their weight-loss up to the 12-month visit.
Results:
Weight loss on a HLF diet or a HLC diet is associated
with significant, diet-specific DNAm changes at several
genomic loci including obesity- and diabetes-related genes.
Conclusions:
A HLF diet and a HLC diet are associated with
distinct changes in DNAm across the genome. Follow-
up analyses will assess whether baseline methylation of
some of these genomic loci may be used as a biomarker to
predict weight loss response for personalized weight-loss
strategies.
Acknowledgements:
This project has received funding
from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and
innovation programme under grant agreement No 701944.
Speaker Biography
Lucia Aronica is a Lecturer in Nutritional Genomics at the Stanford
Prevention and Research Center and at Stanford Continuing Studies.
She is currently leading the EU project OBEDIA-Mark in collaboration
with Stanford University. The focus of her research is investigating
how diet affects the epigenome, and whether we can use epigenetic
biomarkers to design personalized weight loss plans. She also serves
as an advisor for companies active in the personal genomics and
precision health field. She received PhD from the University of Vienna,
and has research experience from the University of Oxford, University
of Southern California, and University Federico II of Naples. She has
published research papers in top-ranked peer reviewed journals such
as Cell, Genes and Development, and the EMBO Journal.
e:
laronica@stanford.eduLucia Aronica
1,2
Christopher Gardner
2
, Robert WHaile
2
,
Megan P Hitchins
2
and
Karl-Heinz Wagner
1
1
University of Vienna, Austria
2
Stanford University, USA
Epigenetic markers of diet response for personalized weight loss strategies
Notes: