ArticleEnvironmental health perspectives2017
Prenatal Exposure to Mercury: Associations with Global DNA Methylation and Hydroxymethylation in Cord Blood and in Childhood.
Article in Environmental health perspectives, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prenatal Exposure to Potentially Toxic Metals and Their Effects on Genetic Material in Offspring: a Systematic Review.Biological trace element research · 2023Pooled it
- DNA methylation changes associated with prenatal mercury exposure: A meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies from PACE consortium.Environmental research · 2022Pooled it
- Environmental Exposure-Induced Epigenetic Modifications and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes: A Systematic Review.Cureus · 2026Review
- DNA methylation as a biomarker of prenatal exposures: current challenges and opportunities.Environmental epigenetics · 2026Review
- Article
- Review
- DNA methylation is associated with hair trace elements in female adolescents from two vulnerable populations in the Colombian Caribbean.Environmental epigenetics · 2024Article
- Prenatal trimester-specific intake of micronutrients: global DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation at birth and persistence in childhood.Journal of developmental origins of health and disease · 2023Article
- Prenatal lead (Pb) exposure is associated with differential placental DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation in a human population.Epigenetics · 2022Article
- Genetics, epigenetics, and transcriptomics of preterm birth.American journal of reproductive immunology (New York, N.Y. : 1989) · 2022Review
- Toxicoepigenetics and Environmental Health: Challenges and Opportunities.Chemical research in toxicology · 2022Review
- Maternal blood metal concentrations and whole blood DNA methylation during pregnancy in the Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigation (EARLI).Epigenetics · 2022Article
- Looking at the Future Through the Mother's Womb: Gestational Diabetes and Offspring Fertility.Endocrinology · 2021Review
- DNA methylation methods: Global DNA methylation and methylomic analyses.Methods (San Diego, Calif.) · 2021Review
- Prenatal methylmercury exposure and DNA methylation in seven-year-old children in the Seychelles Child Development Study.Environment international · 2021Article
- DNA methylation changes induced by prenatal toxic metal exposure: An overview of epidemiological evidence.Environmental epigenetics · 2021Review
- Developmental exposure to methylmercury and ADHD, a literature review of epigenetic studies.Environmental epigenetics · 2021Review
- Controlled human exposures to diesel exhaust: a human epigenome-wide experiment of target bronchial epithelial cells.Environmental epigenetics · 2021Article
- NFrontiers in genetics · 2021Article
- Prenatal Multivitamin Use andInternational journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 7 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMercury is a global pollutant, and prenatal exposure is associated with adverse health effects. To date, no studies have evaluated the association between prenatal mercury exposure and DNA hydroxymethylation, an epigenetic modification important for tissue differentiation and embryonic development.
objectivesWe sought to evaluate the association between prenatal mercury exposure and offspring global DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation at birth and test for persistence of the association in childhood.
methodsWithin Project Viva, a U.S. prebirth cohort, we examined associations of maternal second trimester red blood cell mercury (RBC-Hg) concentrations with global 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (%-5hmC) and 5-methylcytosine (%-5mC) DNA content in blood collected at birth (
resultsMedian prenatal RBC-Hg concentration was 3.23μg/g [interquartile range (IQR)=3.29]. At birth, median cord blood %-5mC, %-5hmC, and their ratio were 4.95%, 0.22%, and 24.37, respectively. The mean adjusted difference [95% confidence interval (CI)] of blood %-5hmC for a doubling in prenatal RBC-Hg concentration was -0.013% (-0.029, 0.002), -0.031% (-0.056, -0.006), and 0.005% (-0.007, 0.018) at birth, early, and midchildhood, respectively. The corresponding relative adjusted change in the genomic ratio of %-5mC to %-5hmC for a doubling in prenatal RBC-Hg concentration was 4.70% (0.04, 9.58), 22.42% (7.73, 39.11), and 0.73% (-4.18, 5.88) at birth, early, and midchildhood, respectively. No associations were present between prenatal maternal RBC-Hg and %-5mC at any time point.
conclusionsPrenatal mercury exposure was associated with lower %-5hmC genomic content and a corresponding increase in the ratio of %-5mC to %-5hmC in cord blood. This association was persistent in early but not midchildhood blood. Our results demonstrate the potential malleability of epigenetic modifications associated with mercury exposure
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