Interdisciplinary Program in Bioinformatics, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
Department of Internal Medicine and Environmental Health Center, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Mar 10;19(6):3292. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19063292.
Particulate matter with a diameter of ≤10 µm (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO) 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 and NO 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 and NO 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 and NO exposure and DNA methylation in several CpG sites in cord blood cells, especially for midpregnancy exposure.
粒径≤10 µm 的颗粒物（PM）和二氧化氮（NO）会影响胎儿的 DNA 甲基化，但亚洲关于产前暴露于空气污染的表观遗传学研究尚缺乏。因此，本研究旨在通过韩国出生队列评估环境空气中 PM 和 NO 浓度与脐带血 DNA 中 CpG 甲基化之间是否存在关联。使用母体地址数据将空气污染物浓度纳入最终的 LUR 模型中。使用 HumanMethylationEPIC BeadChip 并采用线性回归分析模型来确定甲基化水平。在每个孕期暴露中，使用多污染物模型和单污染物模型分别进行了多污染物模型和单污染物模型。在单污染物模型和多污染物回归分析中，妊娠中期暴露的差异甲基化位置数量最大。此外，妊娠中期暴露的基因集分析显示了四个基因本体术语（细胞对 staurosporine 的反应、细胞骨架组织的正调控、神经递质转运和细胞凋亡的执行阶段）。总之，这些发现表明产前 PM 和 NO 暴露与脐带血细胞中几个 CpG 位点的 DNA 甲基化之间存在关联，尤其是妊娠中期暴露。
