Asthma could start in the womb- Latest Research

Children born in heavy traffic areas could be at greater risk of developing asthma due to genetic changes brought on by pollution and acquired in the womb, researchers said.

The new study conducted by researchers from the University of Cincinnati (UC) and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health is published in the journal PLoS ONE.

The researchers studied umbilical cord blood from New York City children, and discovered evidence of a possible new biomarker — an epigenetic alteration in the gene ACSL3 — associated with prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

They pointed out that such chemical compounds are created as byproducts of incomplete combustion from carbon-containing fuels, resulting in high levels in heavy-traffic areas. Past studies have linked exposure to PAHs to diseases like cancer and childhood asthma.

The researchers said that their latest finding provides a potential clue for predicting environmentally related asthma in children, particularly those born to mothers who live in high-traffic areas while pregnant.

The team claim that theirs is the first study to examine the effects of prenatal ambient air pollutant exposure on epigenetic changes — which may disrupt the normal functioning of genes by affecting their expression but do not cause structural changes or mutations in the genes-linked to asthma.

Working in collaboration with researchers from Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, the team studied the relationship between prenatal PAH exposure and childhood asthma, hypothesizing that transplacental exposure to PAHs could “reprogram” foetal genes and lead to airway inflammation or asthma during childhood.

“Our data support the concept that environmental exposures can interact with genes during key developmental periods to trigger disease onset later in life, and that tissues are being reprogrammed to become abnormal later,” says Shuk-mei Ho, senior author of the paper, chair of UC’s Department of Environmental Health and the director of the Center for Environmental Genetics.

The researchers used biological specimens from the CCCEH birth cohort of mothers and children living in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx, and analysed umbilical cord white blood cell samples from 56 children for epigenetic alterations related to prenatal PAH exposure.