Abstract
Background: Phthalates and bisphenols are non-persistent endocrine disrupting chemicals that are ubiquitously present in our environment and may have long-lasting health effects following fetal exposure. A potential mechanism underlying these exposure–outcome relationships is differential DNA methylation. Our objective was to examine the associations of maternal phthalate and bisphenol concentrations during pregnancy with DNA methylation in cord blood using a chemical mixtures approach. Methods: This study was embedded in a prospective birth cohort study in the Netherlands and included 306 participants. We measured urine phthalates and bisphenols concentrations in the first, second and third trimester. Cord blood DNA methylation in their children was processed using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip using an epigenome-wide association approach. Using quantile g-computation, we examined the association of increasing all mixture components by one quartile with cord blood DNA methylation. Results: We did not find evidence for statistically significant associations of a maternal mixture of phthalates and bisphenols during any of the trimesters of pregnancy with DNA methylation in cord blood (all p values > 4.01 * 10–8). However, we identified one suggestive association (p value < 1.0 * 10–6) of the first trimester maternal mixture of phthalates and bisphenols and three suggestive associations of the second trimester maternal mixture of phthalates and bisphenols with DNA methylation in cord blood. Conclusions: Although we did not identify genome-wide significant results, we identified some suggestive associations of exposure to a maternal mixture of phthalates and bisphenols in the first and second trimester with DNA methylation in cord blood that need further exploration in larger study samples.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 125 |
| Journal | Clinical Epigenetics |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 10 Oct 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The general design of the Generation R Study is made possible by financial support from the Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The EWAS data were funded by a grant to VWVJ from the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI)/Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NCHA; project nr. 050-060-810), by funds from the Genetic Laboratory of the Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus MC, and by a grant from the National Institute of Child and Human Development (R01HD068437). This study was supported by grants R01ES-022972 and R01ES-029779 from the National Institutes of Health, USA. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (733206, LifeCycle; 874739, LongITools; 874583, ATHLETE) and from the European Joint Programming Initiative ‘A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life’ (JPI HDHL, NutriPROGRAM project, ZonMw the Netherlands no. 529051022). VWVJ received a grant from the European Research Council (ERC Consolidator Grant, ERC-2014-CoG-64916). The funding sources had no involvement in the study design, the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, the writing of the report and the decision to submit the article for publication.
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