Novel epigenetic and transcriptomic profiles of immune, inflammatory, and cellular transduction pathways are associated with chronic perceived stress in midlife women

The purpose of this exploratory analysis is to identify pathways common to both DNA methylation and gene expression linked to high perceived stress and evaluate protein-protein interactions of the genes in these pathways. To do this, we selected a sample of premenopausal healthy women stratified for being high (n = 31) and low stress (n = 32) from a large study who had available biospecimens. We used two meta-analysis approaches (strict and inclusive) to identify the pathways supported across the molecular data types, both methylation and gene expression. To delineate potential interactions among the pathways and functional roles of genes linked to the high stress group through epigenomic and transcriptomic analyses, we assessed protein-protein interaction (PPI) network connectivity utilizing the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING). We identified 17 KEGG pathways that were significant (p-value