Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012;7(5):e37147.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037147. Epub 2012 May 25.

Influence of prenatal arsenic exposure and newborn sex on global methylation of cord blood DNA

J Richard Pilsner  1 , Megan N Hall, Xinhua Liu, Vesna Ilievski, Vesna Slavkovich, Diane Levy, Pam Factor-Litvak, Mahammad Yunus, Mahfuzar Rahman, Joseph H Graziano, Mary V Gamble
Affiliations

Influence of prenatal arsenic exposure and newborn sex on global methylation of cord blood DNA

J Richard Pilsner et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

Background: An emerging body of evidence indicates that early-life arsenic (As) exposure may influence the trajectory of health outcomes later in life. However, the mechanisms underlying these observations are unknown.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of prenatal As exposure on global methylation of cord blood DNA in a study of mother/newborn pairs in Matlab, Bangladesh.

Design: Maternal and cord blood DNA were available from a convenience sample of 101 mother/newborn pairs. Measures of As exposure included maternal urinary As (uAs), maternal blood As (mbAs) and cord blood As (cbAs). Several measures of global DNA methylation were assessed, including the [3H]-methyl-incorporation assay and three Pyrosequencing assays: Alu, LINE-1 and LUMA.

Results: In the total sample, increasing quartiles of maternal uAs were associated with an increase in covariate-adjusted means of newborn global DNA methylation as measured by the [3H]-methyl-incorporation assay (quartile 1 (Q1) and Q2 vs. Q4; p = 0.06 and 0.04, respectively). Sex-specific linear regression analyses, while not reaching significance level of 0.05, indicated that the associations between As exposures and Alu, LINE-1 and LUMA were positive among male newborns (N = 58) but negative among female newborns (N = 43); tests for sex differences were borderline significant for the association of cbAs and mbAs with Alu (p = 0.05 and 0.09, respectively) and for the association between maternal uAs and LINE-1 (p = 0.07). Sex-specific correlations between maternal urinary creatinine and newborn methyl-incorporation, Alu and LINE-1 were also evident (p<0.05).

Conclusions: These results suggest that prenatal As exposure is associated with global DNA methylation in cord blood DNA, possibly in a sex-specific manner. Arsenic-induced epigenetic modifications in utero may potentially influence disease outcomes later in life. Additional studies are needed to confirm these findings and to examine the persistence of DNA methylation marks over time.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Newborn global DNA methylation and maternal urinary As exposure.
Mean (SE) newborn global methylation levels as measured by the methyl-incorporation assay by quartiles of maternal uAs exposure adjusted for the sex-specific effect of uCrn. * Q1 and Q2 vs. Q4; p = 0.06 and 0.04, respectively.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Kinniburgh DG, Smedley PL, Davies J, Milne C, Gaus I, et al. Welch A, Stollenwerk KG, editors. The scale and causes of the groundwater arsenic problem in Bangladesh. Arsenic in Ground Water: Geochemistry and Occurence: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2003. pp. 211–257.
    1. Smith AH, Lingas EO, Rahman M. Contamination of drinking-water by arsenic in Bangladesh: a public health emergency. Bull World Health Organ. 2000;78:1093–1103. - PMC - PubMed
    1. IARC W, editor. 2004. Some drinking-water disinfectants and contaminants, including arsenic: IARC Press.
    1. Basu A, Mahata J, Gupta S, Giri AK. Genetic toxicology of a paradoxical human carcinogen, arsenic: a review. Mutat Res. 2001;488:171–194. - PubMed
    1. Vahter M. Genetic polymorphism in the biotransformation of inorganic arsenic and its role in toxicity. Toxicol Lett. 2000;112–113:209–217. - PubMed

Publication types

-