ArticleToxicology letters2016
The role of gut microbiota in fetal methylmercury exposure: Insights from a pilot study.
Article in Toxicology letters, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Major heavy metals and human gut microbiota composition: a systematic review with nutritional approach.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Toxic Metals and Metalloids Exposure and the Gut-Cardiometabolic Axis: A Narrative Review of Microbiome Dysbiosis, Gut Barrier Dysfunction, and Metabolic Inflammation.Cardiovascular toxicology · 2026Review
- Community assessment of fish consumption and methyl mercury exposure among Asian women of reproductive age in Chicago.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2026Article
- Mercury and Arctic Char Gill Microbiota Correlation in Canadian Arctic Communities.Microorganisms · 2024Article
- Intestinal microbiota protects against methylmercury-induced neurotoxicity.Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2024Review
- Gut heavy metal and antibiotic resistome of humans living in the high Arctic.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Assessing the role of the gut microbiome in methylmercury demethylation and elimination in humans and gnotobiotic mice.Archives of toxicology · 2023Article
- Influence of perinatal and childhood exposure to tobacco and mercury in children's gut microbiota.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Navigating a Two-Way Street: Metal Toxicity and the Human Gut Microbiome.Environmental health perspectives · 2022Article
- Diet-driven mercury contamination is associated with polar bear gut microbiota.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms Mediating Methylmercury Neurotoxicity and Neuroinflammation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Fecal Methylmercury Correlates With Gut Microbiota Taxa in Pacific Walruses (Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- Understanding the effects of dietary components on the gut microbiome and human health.Food science and biotechnology · 2020Review
- The Impact of Environmental Chemicals on the Gut Microbiome.Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · 2020Article
- Beyond the looking glass: recent advances in understanding the impact of environmental exposures on neuropsychiatric disease.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Review
- Intestinal Microbiome and Metal Toxicity.Current opinion in toxicology · 2020Article
- Methylmercury Interactions With Gut Microbiota and Potential Modulation of Neurogenic Niches in the Brain.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Article
- Comparison of Bacterial Community Structure and Diversity in Traditional Gold Mining Waste Disposal Site and Rice Field by Using a Metabarcoding Approach.International journal of microbiology · 2020Article
- Gut microbiome: An intermediary to neurotoxicity.Neurotoxicology · 2019Review
- Toward Sustainable Environmental Quality: Priority Research Questions for North America.Environmental toxicology and chemistry · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeThe mechanisms by which gut microbiota contribute to methylmercury metabolism remain unclear. Among a cohort of pregnant mothers, the objectives of our pilot study were to determine (1) associations between gut microbiota and mercury concentrations in biomarkers (stool, hair and cord blood) and (2) the contributions of gut microbial mercury methylation/demethylation to stool methylmercury.
methodsPregnant women (36-39 weeks gestation, n=17) donated hair and stool specimens, and cord blood was collected for a subset (n=7). The diversity of gut microbiota was determined using 16S rRNA gene profiling (n=17). For 6 stool samples with highest/lowest methylmercury concentrations, metagenomic whole genome shotgun sequencing was employed to search for the mercury methylation gene (hgcA), and two mer operon genes involved in methylmercury detoxification (merA and merB).
resultsSeventeen bacterial genera were significantly correlated (increasing or decreasing) with stool methylmercury, stool inorganic mercury, or hair total mercury; however, aside from one genus, there was no overlap between biomarkers. There were no definitive matches for hgcA or merB, while merA was detected at low concentrations in all six samples. MAJOR
conclusionsProportional differences in stool methylmercury were not likely attributed to gut microbiota through methylation/demethylation. Gut microbiota potentially altered methylmercury metabolism using indirect pathways.
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Registered trials
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