were seen in a group of genes involved in developmental syndromes that share common phenotypes with FAS (Table 2A), as indicated by a recent report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Guidelines for Referral and Diagnosis, July 2004). The phenotypes of nine syndromes—Aarskog syndrome, Williams syndrome, Noonan’s syndrome, Dubowitz syndrome, Brachman-Delange syndrome, Toluene embryopathy, Fetal hydantion syndrome, Fetal Valproate syndrome, and Maternal PKU fetal effects—all display considerable overlap with FASD. MeDIP-chip analysis identified gene DNA methylation changes in both NTC and NTO phenotype involved in three of those syndromes-Williams syndrome (Wbscr 1 and Wbscr 22), Noonan’s syndrome (Ptpn11), and Brachman-Delange syndrome (Nipbl) (Table 2A). In addition, alcohol-induced DNA methylation level changes in genes involved in other developmental syndromes like Angelmann syndrome (UBe3a), Bartter’s syndrome (Bsnd), Cleft palate syndrome (Pdgfra, snai1), and Hurler’s syndrome (Idua) were identified using MeDIP-chip (Table 2B). Furthermore, alcohol also altered methylation in genes known to be imprinted which my interfere (eg. Igf2r) or increase the silencing of gene expression (eg. Ube3a in Angelmann Syndrome-Table 3).
