Table 2 Results of sex-specific meta-analyses of the blood samples in ADNI and AIBL datasets. Inverse-variance weighted fixed-effects meta-analysis models were used to combine dataset-specific results from logistic regression models that included methylation beta values and covariate variables age, batch (i.e., methylation plate), and estimated immune cell-type proportions. In females, two CpGs were significant in the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) vs. cognitive normal groups comparison at 5% false discovery rate (FDR). No CpG reached 5% FDR in males. Annotations include the location of the CpG based on hg19/GRCh37 genomic annotation (Chr, position), nearby genes based on GREAT and Illumina gene annotations, and overlap with enhancer regions identified in Nasser et al. [53] study (enhancer). Odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals (OR, 95% CI) describe changes in odds of AD (on the multiplicative scale) associated with a one percent increase in methylation beta values (i.e., increase in methylation beta values by 0.01) after adjusting for covariate variables. Direction indicates hypermethylation (+) or hypomethylation (−) in AD samples in the ADNI and AIBL datasets

From: Distinct sex-specific DNA methylation differences in Alzheimer’s disease