A study by Khalid and coworkers (2014) used the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to understand the epigenetic effects of FAS during early embryonic development. Since methylome-wide studies had not been previously reported in ethanol-treated hESCs and since ethanol had been reported to alter the cellular functions of regulatory genes involved in stem cell maintenance and differentiation (Hansson et al. 2010; Jang et al. 2002), this study served to identify and interpret methylation changes induced by ethanol. Embryonic stem cell lines H1 and H9 were treated with 20 mM or 50 mM ethanol (90 or 225 mg/dL), selected to range from levels equivalent to legal driving limits to those observed in alcoholics (Jones, Sternebring 1992). Cells were treated for 24 or 48 hours in order to mimic prolonged exposures and the low ethanol elimination rates early in fetal development (Burd et al. 2012).
