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Aches and pains aren’t all that pregnancy shares with ageing. Brewing a baby leads to changes in the distribution of certain chemical markers on a pregnant person’s DNA — changes similar to those that are a hallmark of getting older. But new research shows that, several months after a person gives birth, the chemical patterns revert to an earlier state1. The results strengthen previous work in mice and preliminary results in humans2.
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Nature 628, 18-19 (2024)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00843-w
Clarification 25 March 2024: This article has been updated to provide a clearer account of Dena Dubal’s thinking about methylation.
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