ArticleThe Science of the total environment2024
Prenatal and childhood lead exposure is prospectively associated with biological markers of aging in adolescence.
Article in The Science of the total environment, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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
7 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic Review on Neurotoxic Implications of Lead-Induced Gene Expression Alterations in the Etiology of Alzheimer's Disease.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2025Pooled it
- Chemical and climatic environmental exposures and epigenetic aging: A systematic review.Environmental research · 2025Pooled it
- Article
- BRIDGING THE GAP: ENHANCING THE GENERALIZABILITY OF EPIGENETIC CLOCKS THROUGH TRANSFER LEARNING.The annals of applied statistics · 2026Article
- Review
- Prenatal and early life exposure to fine particulate matter and telomere length in early childhood.International journal of hygiene and environmental health · 2025Article
- Spatiotemporal patterns of rheumatic heart disease burden attributable to high systolic blood pressure, high sodium diet, and lead exposure (1990 to 2019): a longitudinal observational study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Few studies have related early life lead exposure to adolescent biological aging, a period characterized by marked increases in maturational tempo. We examined associations between prenatal and childhood lead exposure and adolescent biological age (mean 14.5 years) utilizing multiple epigenetic clocks including: intrinsic (IEAA), extrinsic (EEAA), Horvath, Hannum, PhenoAge, GrimAge, Skin-Blood, Wu, PedBE, as well as DNA methylation derived telomere length (DNAmTL). Epigenetic clocks and DNAmTL were calculated via adolescent blood DNA methylation measured by Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChips. We constructed general linear models (GLMs) with individual lead measures predicting biological age. We additionally examined sex-stratified models and lead by sex interactions, adjusting for adolescent age and lead levels, maternal smoking and education, and proportion of cell types. We also estimated effects of lead exposure on biological age using generalized estimating equations (GEE). First trimester blood lead was positively associated with a 0.14 increase in EEAA age in the GLMs though not the GEE models (95%CI 0.03, 0.25). First and 2nd trimester blood lead levels were associated with a 0.02 year increase in PedBE age in GLM and GEE models (1st trimester, 95%CI 0.004, 0.03; 2nd trimester, 95%CI 0.01, 0.03). Third trimester and 24 month blood lead levels were associated with a -0.06 and -0.05 decrease in Skin-Blood age, respectively, in GLM models. Additionally, 3rd trimester blood lead levels were associated with a 0.08 year decrease in Hannum age in GLM and GEE models (95%CI -0.15, -0.01). There were multiple significant results in sex-stratified models and significant lead by sex interactions, where males experienced accelerated biological age, compared to females who saw a decelerated biological age, with respect to IEAA, EEAA, Horvath, Hannum, and PedBE clocks. Further research is needed to understand sex-specific relationships between lead exposure and measures of biological aging in adolescence and the trajectory of biological aging into young adulthood.
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