ArticleEnvironmental health perspectives2018
A Prospective Study of Environmental Exposures and Early Biomarkers in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Design, Protocols, and Preliminary Data from the MARBLES Study.
Article in Environmental health perspectives, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 92 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
92 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 133 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exposure to heavy metals in utero and autism spectrum disorder at age 3: a meta-analysis of two longitudinal cohorts of siblings of children with autism.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2024Pooled it
- A meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies on pregnancy vitamin B12 concentrations and offspring DNA methylation.Epigenetics · 2023Pooled it
- Accelerated epigenetic age at birth and child emotional and behavioura development in early childhood: a meta-analysis of four prospective cohort studies in ECHO.Epigenetics · 2023Pooled it
- A meta-analysis of pre-pregnancy maternal body mass index and placental DNA methylation identifies 27 CpG sites with implications for mother-child health.Communications biology · 2022Pooled it
- A meta-analysis of two high-risk prospective cohort studies reveals autism-specific transcriptional changes to chromatin, autoimmune, and environmental response genes in umbilical cord blood.Molecular autism · 2019Pooled it
- Prenatal exposure to organophosphate ester flame retardants and plasticizers and maternal immune responses in three ECHO cohorts.Environmental research · 2026Article
- Developmental exposure to a human-relevant PCB mixture: impacts on PCB congeners, metabolites, and drug-metabolizing enzymes in the bladder of post-weaning mice.Archives of toxicology · 2026Article
- Prenatal cell-free DNA methylome detects association with autism and maternal obesity.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Sex and tissue resolved co-expression networks reveal a female placental-brain axis protective against prenatal PCB exposure.Genome biology · 2026Article
- Mixed Evidence for Impact of Early Infant Gut Microbiome and Later Development of Autism Spectrum Disorder in the MARBLES Prospective Cohort Study.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2026Article
- PCB Exposure in Adult Male Mice Reduces Proliferating Cells in the Prostate but Minimally Alters Voiding.Toxics · 2026Article
- The Bladder as a Target for PCB Toxicity: Evidence from PCB Levels, Phase I Metabolite Levels, and Cytochrome P450 Expression Following Developmental Exposure to a Human-Relevant PCB Mixture in Mice.Chemical research in toxicology · 2026Article
- Association of Breastfeeding Duration with Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in an Enriched Familial Likelihood Cohort for Autism Spectrum Disorder.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Longitudinal metabolome profiling from pregnancy through childhood and risk of neurodevelopmental disorders at age 10.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The influence of an environmentally relevant polychlorinated biphenyl mixture on the intestinal microbiota in post-weaning mouse dams.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2026Article
- Prenatal Exposure to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Maternal Thyroid Function during Pregnancy in a Cohort with High Familial Likelihood of Autism Spectrum Disorder.Environmental science & technology · 2025Article
- Smooth muscle of the lower urinary tract: BK-RyR coupling in physiology and pathophysiology.Journal of muscle research and cell motility · 2025Review
- Rule-out test for autism using machine-learning analysis of molecular temporal dynamics in hair - a multicenter study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Maternal serum and placental metabolomes in association with prenatal exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and their relevance to child neurodevelopment in an ASD-enriched cohort.Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) · 2025Article
- Gestational exposures to mixtures of multiple chemical classes and autism spectrum disorder in the MARBLES study.Environmental research · 2025Article
32 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundUntil recently, environmental factors in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were largely ignored. Over the last decade, altered risks from lifestyle, medical, chemical, and other factors have emerged through various study designs: whole population cohorts linked to diagnostic and/or exposure-related databases, large case-control studies, and smaller cohorts of children at elevated risk for ASD.
objectivesThis study aimed to introduce the MARBLES (Markers of Autism Risk in Babies-Learning Early Signs) prospective study and its goals, motivate the enhanced-risk cohort design, describe protocols and main exposures of interest, and present initial descriptive results for the study population.
methodsFamilies having one or more previous child with ASD were contacted before or during a pregnancy, and once the woman became pregnant, were invited to enroll. Data and biological samples were collected throughout pregnancy, at birth, and until the child's third birthday. Neurodevelopment was assessed longitudinally. The study began enrolling in 2006 and is ongoing.
resultsAs of 30 June 2018, 463 pregnant mothers have enrolled. Most mothers ([Formula: see text]) were thirty years of age or over, including 7.9% who are fourty years of age or over. The sample includes 22% Hispanic and another 25% nonHispanic Black, Asian, or multiracial participants; 24% were born outside the United States. Retention is high: 84% of participants whose pregnancies did not end in miscarriage completed the study or are still currently active. Among children evaluated at 36 months of age, 24% met criteria for ASD, and another 25% were assessed as nonASD nontypical development.
conclusionFew environmental studies of ASD prospectively obtain early-life exposure measurements. The MARBLES study fills this gap with extensive data and specimen collection beginning in pregnancy and has achieved excellent retention in an ethnically diverse study population. The 24% familial recurrence risk is consistent with recent reported risks observed in large samples of siblings of children diagnosed with ASD. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP535.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.