Prenatal Exposure to Traffic-Related Air Pollution and the DNA Methylation in Cord Blood Cells: MOCEH Study

Jaehyun Park, Woo Jin Kim, Jeeyoung Kim, Chan-Yeong Jeong, Hyesook Park, Yun-Chul Hong, Mina Ha, Yangho Kim, Sungho Won and Eunhee Ha
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Jaehyun Park: Interdisciplinary Program in Bioinformatics, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
Woo Jin Kim: Department of Internal Medicine and Environmental Health Center, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Korea
Jeeyoung Kim: Department of Internal Medicine and Environmental Health Center, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Korea
Chan-Yeong Jeong: Department of Internal Medicine and Environmental Health Center, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Korea
Hyesook Park: Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 07804, Korea
Yun-Chul Hong: Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul 03080, Korea
Mina Ha: Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan 31114, Korea
Yangho Kim: Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Ulsan University Hospital, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Ulsan 44033, Korea
Sungho Won: Interdisciplinary Program in Bioinformatics, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
Eunhee Ha: Graduate Program in System Health Science and Engineering (BK21 Plus Program), Ewha Womans University, Seoul 07804, Korea

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: Particulate matter with a diameter of ≤10 µm (PM 10 ) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) affect the DNA methylation in the fetus, but epigenetic studies regarding prenatal exposure to air pollution in Asia are lacking. Therefore, this study aimed to assess whether there is any association between the ambient concentrations of PM 10 and NO 2 and CpG methylation in the cord blood DNA by using a Korean birth cohort. The concentrations of the air pollutants were incorporated into the final LUR model by using the maternal address data. The methylation level was determined using HumanMethylationEPIC BeadChip and a linear regression analysis model. A multipollutant model including both PM 10 and NO 2 and models with single pollutants were used for each trimester exposure. The number of differentially methylated positions was the largest for midpregnancy exposure in both the single pollutant models and the multipollutant regression analysis. Additionally, gene-set analysis regarding midpregnancy exposure revealed four gene ontology terms (cellular response to staurosporine, positive regulation of cytoskeleton organization, neurotransmitter transport, and execution phase of apoptosis). In conclusion, these findings show an association between prenatal PM 10 and NO 2 exposure and DNA methylation in several CpG sites in cord blood cells, especially for midpregnancy exposure.

Keywords: DNA methylation; cord blood; nitrogen dioxide; particulate matter (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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