Journal article
The association of prenatal ambient air pollution with placental epigenetic gestational age at birth
Environmental epidemiology, v 9(3), e384
Jun 2025
PMID: 40331055
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Prenatal air pollutants have been associated with adverse birth outcomes, and DNA methylation (DNAm) changes in placenta may contribute to these associations. DNAm-based epigenetic gestational age (GA) estimators are emerging biomarkers for aging/biological age that can reflect early-life exposures and predict long-term health outcomes. We leveraged 103 mother-offspring pairs from the Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigation cohort to assess associations between prenatal air pollution and placental epigenetic GA at birth.
Prenatal air pollution concentrations (NO
, O
, PM
, and PM
) were estimated from weekly data from monitoring stations near maternal residence and calculated for preconception and pregnancy periods. DNAm from fetal-side placenta samples was measured on Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip. Epigenetic GA was computed using Lee's robust placenta clock algorithm. GA acceleration/deceleration was the residual of predicted epigenetic GA on chronologic GA, adjusted (intrinsic) or unadjusted (extrinsic) for cell type proportions. We used linear regressions to examine associations between average air pollution levels in each period and GA acceleration/deceleration, and weekly distributed lag models to examine critical exposure windows.
Higher pregnancy average O
and PM
exposures were associated with decelerated intrinsic (β = -0.65 and -0.79) and extrinsic GA (β = -0.69 and -0.74) at birth (per 10-unit increment). Trimester-specific analyses revealed higher O
and PM
exposures in trimesters 2 to 3 associated with decelerated GA at birth. Weekly distributed lag models suggested pregnancy weeks 21 to 31 and 21 to 29 were critical windows of O
and PM
exposures, respectively.
Prenatal air pollution exposures, especially during mid- to late-pregnancy, were associated with lower biological maturity at birth.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- The association of prenatal ambient air pollution with placental epigenetic gestational age at birth
- Creators
- Zhengting He - Johns Hopkins UniversityAshley Y Song - Johns Hopkins UniversityRose Schrott - Johns Hopkins UniversityJason I Feinberg - Johns Hopkins UniversityKelly M Bakulski - University of MichiganKelly S Benke - Johns Hopkins UniversityLisa A Croen - Kaiser PermanenteIrva Hertz-Picciotto - University of California, DavisRebecca J Schmidt - University of California, DavisKristen Lyall - Drexel UniversityCraig J Newschaffer - Pennsylvania State UniversityM Daniele Fallin - Emory UniversityHeather E Volk - Johns Hopkins UniversityChristine Ladd-Acosta - Johns Hopkins University
- Publication Details
- Environmental epidemiology, v 9(3), e384
- Publisher
- Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- Number of pages
- 9
- Grant note
- R01 ES025574 / NIEHS NIH HHS R24 ES030893 / NIEHS NIH HHS R01 ES025531 / NIEHS NIH HHS R01 ES017646 / NIEHS NIH HHS R01 ES023780 / NIEHS NIH HHS R01 ES016443 / NIEHS NIH HHS
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Epidemiology and Biostatistics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001481132100001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105005159847
- Other Identifier
- 991022051419804721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Environmental Sciences
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health