Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Barcelona, Spain.
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain.
Nat Commun. 2022 Nov 21;13(1):7024. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-34422-2.
Environmental exposures during early life play a critical role in life-course health, yet the molecular phenotypes underlying environmental effects on health are poorly understood. In the Human Early Life Exposome (HELIX) project, a multi-centre cohort of 1301 mother-child pairs, we associate individual exposomes consisting of >100 chemical, outdoor, social and lifestyle exposures assessed in pregnancy and childhood, with multi-omics profiles (methylome, transcriptome, proteins and metabolites) in childhood. We identify 1170 associations, 249 in pregnancy and 921 in childhood, which reveal potential biological responses and sources of exposure. Pregnancy exposures, including maternal smoking, cadmium and molybdenum, are predominantly associated with child DNA methylation changes. In contrast, childhood exposures are associated with features across all omics layers, most frequently the serum metabolome, revealing signatures for diet, toxic chemical compounds, essential trace elements, and weather conditions, among others. Our comprehensive and unique resource of all associations ( https://helixomics.isglobal.org/ ) will serve to guide future investigation into the biological imprints of the early life exposome.
环境暴露在生命历程健康中起着至关重要的作用,但环境对健康影响的分子表型仍知之甚少。在人类早期生活暴露组(HELIX)项目中,我们对 1301 对母婴对进行了多中心队列研究,将个体暴露组(包括妊娠和儿童期评估的> 100 种化学、户外、社会和生活方式暴露)与儿童期的多组学特征(甲基组、转录组、蛋白质和代谢物)相关联。我们发现了 1170 个关联,其中 249 个在妊娠期间,921 个在儿童期,这些关联揭示了潜在的生物学反应和暴露源。妊娠暴露,包括母亲吸烟、镉和钼,主要与儿童的 DNA 甲基化变化相关。相比之下,儿童时期的暴露与所有组学层面的特征相关,最常见的是血清代谢组,揭示了饮食、有毒化合物、必需微量元素和天气条件等特征。我们的所有关联的综合和独特资源(https://helixomics.isglobal.org/)将有助于指导对早期生活暴露组的生物学印记的未来研究。