Tran Nguyen Quoc Vuong, Miyake Kunio
Department of Health Sciences, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Research, University of Yamanashi, 1110, Shimokato, Chuo, Yamanashi 409-3898, Japan.
Int J Genomics. 2017;2017:7526592. doi: 10.1155/2017/7526592. Epub 2017 May 8.
The increasing prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders, especially autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), calls for more research into the identification of etiologic and risk factors. The Developmental Origin of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesizes that the environment during fetal and childhood development affects the risk for many chronic diseases in later stages of life, including neurodevelopmental disorders. Epigenetics, a term describing mechanisms that cause changes in the chromosome state without affecting DNA sequences, is suggested to be the underlying mechanism, according to the DOHaD hypothesis. Moreover, many neurodevelopmental disorders are also related to epigenetic abnormalities. Experimental and epidemiological studies suggest that exposure to prenatal environmental toxicants is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. In addition, there is also evidence that environmental toxicants can result in epigenetic alterations, notably DNA methylation. In this review, we first focus on the relationship between neurodevelopmental disorders and environmental toxicants, in particular maternal smoking, plastic-derived chemicals (bisphenol A and phthalates), persistent organic pollutants, and heavy metals. We then review studies showing the epigenetic effects of those environmental factors in humans that may affect normal neurodevelopment.
神经发育障碍，尤其是自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）和注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）的患病率不断上升，这就需要对病因和风险因素的识别进行更多研究。健康与疾病的发育起源（DOHaD）假说认为，胎儿期和儿童期发育期间的环境会影响生命后期许多慢性疾病的风险，包括神经发育障碍。根据DOHaD假说，表观遗传学是一个描述在不影响DNA序列的情况下导致染色体状态变化的机制的术语，被认为是潜在机制。此外，许多神经发育障碍也与表观遗传异常有关。实验和流行病学研究表明，产前接触环境毒物与神经发育障碍有关。此外，也有证据表明环境毒物可导致表观遗传改变，尤其是DNA甲基化。在本综述中，我们首先关注神经发育障碍与环境毒物之间的关系，特别是母亲吸烟、塑料衍生化学物质（双酚A和邻苯二甲酸盐）、持久性有机污染物和重金属。然后，我们回顾了显示这些环境因素对人类可能影响正常神经发育的表观遗传效应的研究。
