Residential Proximity to Major Roadways at Birth, DNA Methylation at Birth and Midchildhood, and Childhood Cognitive Test Scores: Project Viva(Massachusetts, USA)

Overview

Journal Environ Health Perspect

Date 2018 Sep 19

PMID 30226399

Citations 9

Authors

Cheng Peng

Martijn Den Dekker

Andres Cardenas

Sheryl L Rifas-Shiman

Heike Gibson

Golareh Agha

Maria H Harris

Brent A Coull

Joel Schwartz

Augusto A Litonjua

Dawn L DeMeo

Marie-France Hivert

Matthew W Gilman

Sharon K Sagiv

Yvonne de Kluizenaar

Janine F Felix

Vincent W Jaddoe

Emily Oken

Liesbeth Duijts

Diane R Gold

Andrea A Baccarelli

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Epigenetic variability is hypothesized as a regulatory pathway through which prenatal exposures may influence child development and health.

Objective: We sought to examine the associations of residential proximity to roadways at birth and epigenome-wide DNA methylation. We also assessed associations of differential methylation with child cognitive outcomes.

Methods: We estimated residential proximity to roadways at birth using a geographic information system (GIS) and cord blood methylation using Illumina's HumanMethylation450-array in 482 mother-child pairs in Project Viva. We identified individual CpGs associated with residential-proximity-to-roadways at birth using robust linear regression [[Formula: see text]]. We also estimated association between proximity-to-roadways at birth and methylation of the same sites in blood samples collected at age 7-11 y ([Formula: see text]). We ran the same analyses in the Generation R Study for replication ([Formula: see text]). In Project Viva, we investigated associations of differential methylation at birth with midchildhood cognition using linear regression.

Results: Living closer to major roadways at birth was associated with higher cord blood (and-more weakly-midchildhood blood) methylation of four sites in LAMB2. For each halving of residential-proximity-to-major-roadways, we observed a 0.82% increase in DNA methylation at cg05654765 [95% confidence interval (CI): (0.54%, 1.10%)], 0.88% at cg14099457 [95% CI: (0.56%, 1.19%)], 0.19% at cg03732535 [95% CI: (0.11%, 0.28)], and 1.08% at cg02954987 [95% CI: (0.65%, 1.51%)]. Higher cord blood methylation of these sites was associated with lower midchildhood nonverbal cognitive scores. Our results did not replicate in the Generation R Study.

Conclusions: Our discovery results must be interpreted with caution, given that they were not replicated in a separate cohort. However, living close to major roadways at birth was associated with cord blood methylation of sites in LAMB2-a gene known to be linked to axonal development-in our U.S. cohort. Higher methylation of these sites associated with lower nonverbal cognitive scores at age 7-11 y in the same children. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP2034.

Citing Articles

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Glover S, Illyuk J, Hill C, McGuinness B, McKnight A, Hunter R Environ Epigenet. 2025; 11(1):dvae027.

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Linking Prenatal Environmental Exposures to Lifetime Health with Epigenome-Wide Association Studies: State-of-the-Science Review and Future Recommendations.

Bakulski K, Blostein F, London S Environ Health Perspect. 2023; 131(12):126001.

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Appleton A, Lin B, Kennedy E, Holdsworth E Epigenetics. 2022; 17(13):1905-1919.

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