Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Child and Family Research Institute, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2012 Dec;92(6):716-26. doi: 10.1038/clpt.2012.141. Epub 2012 Oct 10.
Drug, hormonal, and nutritional exposures in pregnancy can cause birth defects, or have more subtle influences that may affect adult health through epigenetic developmental programming. Characterizing these epigenetic changes may provide valuable insight into the mechanism by which our health is influenced by the environment and provide biomarkers of exposure; however, currently there are few data from human studies directly addressing this. We review data on three types of exposures-nutritional, glucocorticoid, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals-and discuss how these may be associated with epigenetic changes in the fetus and the placenta, a key mediator of in utero environment. In addition, we outline some considerations for investigation of epigenetic effects in the fetus and placenta that are important to consider in the design of studies for the future.
孕期的药物、激素和营养暴露会导致出生缺陷，或者产生更微妙的影响，通过表观遗传发育编程影响成年健康。描述这些表观遗传变化可能为我们的健康如何受到环境影响提供有价值的见解，并提供暴露的生物标志物；然而，目前直接针对这一问题的人类研究数据很少。我们回顾了三种暴露类型（营养、糖皮质激素和内分泌干扰化学物质）的数据，并讨论了它们如何与胎儿和胎盘的表观遗传变化相关联，胎盘是子宫内环境的关键介质。此外，我们概述了一些在胎儿和胎盘的表观遗传效应研究中需要考虑的问题，这些问题在未来的研究设计中是重要的考虑因素。
