Prenatal arsenic exposure and DNA methylation in maternal and umbilical cord blood leukocytes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Arsenic is an epigenetic toxicant and could influence fetal developmental programming.

Objectives

We evaluated the association between arsenic exposure and DNA methylation in maternal and umbilical cord leukocytes.

Methods

Drinking-water and urine samples were collected when women were at ≤ 28 weeks gestation; the samples were analyzed for arsenic using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. DNA methylation at CpG sites in p16 (n = 7) and p53 (n = 4), and in LINE-1 and Alu repetitive elements (3 CpG sites in each), was quantified using pyrosequencing in 113 pairs of maternal and umbilical blood samples. We used general linear models to evaluate the relationship between DNA methylation and tertiles of arsenic exposure.

Results

Mean (± SD) drink

SUBMITTER: Kile ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3404653 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature