Air pollution mixture exposure during pregnancy and postpartum psychological functioning: racial/ethnic- and fetal sex-specific associations.

Background: Prenatal air pollution (AP) exposure has been linked to postpartum psychological functioning, impacting health outcomes in both women and children. Extant studies primarily focused on individual pollutants.

Objective: To assess the association between prenatal exposure to a mixture of seven AP components and postpartum psychological functioning using daily exposure data and data-driven statistical methods.

Multi-omic integration reveals alterations in nasal mucosal biology that mediate air pollutant effects on allergic rhinitis.

Background: Allergic rhinitis is a common inflammatory condition of the nasal mucosa that imposes a considerable health burden. Air pollution has been observed to increase the risk of developing allergic rhinitis. We addressed the hypotheses that early life exposure to air toxics is associated with developing allergic rhinitis, and that these effects are mediated by DNA methylation and gene expression in the nasal mucosa.

Sensitive development windows of prenatal air pollution and cognitive functioning in preschool age Mexican children.

Introduction: Neurotoxicity resulting from air pollution is of increasing concern. Considering exposure timing effects on neurodevelopmental impairments may be as important as the exposure dose. We used distributed lag regression to determine the sensitive windows of prenatal exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) on children's cognition in a birth cohort in Mexico.

Prenatal ambient air pollutant mixture exposure and neurodevelopment in urban children in the Northeastern United States.

Background: Studies of prenatal air pollution (AP) exposure on child neurodevelopment have mostly focused on a single pollutant. We leveraged daily exposure data and implemented novel data-driven statistical approaches to assess effects of prenatal exposure to a mixture of seven air pollutants on cognitive functioning in school-age children from an urban pregnancy cohort.

Methods: Analyses included 236 children born at ≥37 weeks gestation.

Prenatal Ambient Air Pollutant Mixture Exposure and Early School-age Lung Function.

Unlabelled: Research linking prenatal ambient air pollution with childhood lung function has largely considered one pollutant at a time. Real-life exposure is to mixtures of pollutants and their chemical components; not considering joint effects/effect modification by co-exposures contributes to misleading results.

Methods: Analyses included 198 mother-child dyads recruited from two hospitals and affiliated community health centers in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

KERNEL MACHINE AND DISTRIBUTED LAG MODELS FOR ASSESSING WINDOWS OF SUSCEPTIBILITY TO ENVIRONMENTAL MIXTURES IN CHILDREN'S HEALTH STUDIES.

Exposures to environmental chemicals during gestation can alter health status later in life. Most studies of maternal exposure to chemicals during pregnancy have focused on a single chemical exposure observed at high temporal resolution. Recent research has turned to focus on exposure to mixtures of multiple chemicals, generally observed at a single time point.

Longitudinal assessment of maternal depression and early childhood asthma and wheeze: Effect modification by child sex.

Background: Studies report associations between maternal mental health and adverse respiratory outcomes in children; however, the impact of timing and duration of maternal distress remains understudied. We sought to longitudinally examine associations between maternal depression and childhood asthma and wheeze, and explore sex differences.

Methods: Maternal depression (n = 601) was assessed using the Edinburgh Depression Scale questionnaire, dichotomized at a clinically relevant cutoff (>12) (a) during pregnancy, (b) postpartum, and (c) postpartum and subsequent time points postnatally (recurrent depression).

NICU-based stress response and preterm infant neurobehavior: exploring the critical windows for exposure.

Background: Exposure to maternal stress in utero negatively impacts cognitive and behavioral outcomes of children born at term. The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) can be stressful for preterm infants during a developmental period corresponding to the third trimester of gestation. It is unknown whether stress in the NICU contributes to adverse neurodevelopment among NICU graduates.

Prenatal particulate matter exposure and mitochondrial mutational load at the maternal-fetal interface: Effect modification by genetic ancestry.

Prenatal ambient particulate matter (PM) exposure impacts infant development and alters placental mitochondrial DNA abundance. We investigated whether the timing of PM exposure predicts placental mitochondrial mutational load using NextGen sequencing in 283 multi-ethnic mother-infant dyads. We observed increased PMexposure, particularly during mid- to late-pregnancy and among genes coding for NADH dehydrogenase and subunits of ATP synthase, was associated with a greater amount of nonsynonymous mutations.

Machine learning-driven identification of early-life air toxic combinations associated with childhood asthma outcomes.

Air pollution is a well-known contributor to asthma. Air toxics are hazardous air pollutants that cause or may cause serious health effects. Although individual air toxics have been associated with asthma, only a limited number of studies have specifically examined combinations of air toxics associated with the disease.

Prenatal PM2.5 exposure in the second and third trimesters predicts neurocognitive performance at age 9-10 years: A cohort study of Mexico City children.

Introduction: Prenatal exposure to fine particulate matter air pollution (PM2.5) is an important, under-studied risk factor for neurodevelopmental dysfunction. We describe the relationships between prenatal PM2.

Prenatal Ambient Ultrafine Particle Exposure and Childhood Asthma in the Northeastern United States.

Ambient ultrafine particles (UFPs; with an aerodynamic diameter < 0.1 μm) may exert greater toxicity than other pollution components because of their enhanced oxidative capacity and ability to translocate systemically. Studies examining associations between prenatal UFP exposure and childhood asthma remain sparse.

A hybrid approach to predict daily NO concentrations at city block scale.

Estimating the ambient concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO) is challenging because NO generated by local fossil fuel combustion varies greatly in concentration across space and time. This study demonstrates an integrated hybrid approach combining dispersion modeling and land use regression (LUR) to predict daily NO concentrations at a high spatial resolution (e.g.

Association between prenatal particulate air pollution exposure and telomere length in cord blood: Effect modification by fetal sex.

Introduction: In utero particulate matter exposure produces oxidative stress that impacts cellular processes that include telomere biology. Newborn telomere length is likely critical to an individual's telomere biology; reduction in this initial telomere setting may signal increased susceptibility to adverse outcomes later in life. We examined associations between prenatal particulate matter with diameter ≤2.

Assessing the contributions of metals in environmental media to exposure biomarkers in a region of ferroalloy industry.

Residential proximity to ferroalloy production has been associated with increased manganese exposure, which can adversely affect health, particularly among children. Little is known, however, about which environmental samples contribute most to internal levels of manganese and other ferroalloy metals. We aimed to characterize sources of exposure to metals and evaluate the ability of internal biomarkers to reflect exposures from environmental media.

Maternal Lifetime Trauma and Birthweight: Effect Modification by In Utero Cortisol and Child Sex.

Objectives: To evaluate associations between maternal lifetime traumatic stress and offspring birthweight and examine modifying effects of third trimester cortisol and fetal sex.

Study Design: Analyses included 314 mother-infant dyads from an ethnically mixed pregnancy cohort. Maternal lifetime trauma was reported via the Life Stressor Checklist-Revised.

Prenatal fine particulate exposure associated with reduced childhood lung function and nasal epithelia GSTP1 hypermethylation: Sex-specific effects.

Background: In utero exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 2.5 μm (PM) has been linked to child lung function. Overlapping evidence suggests that child sex and exposure timing may modify effects and associations may be mediated through glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1) methylation.

Association between particulate air pollution exposure during pregnancy and postpartum maternal psychological functioning.

Methods: We studied associations between prenatal exposure to particulate matter with diameter ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and postpartum psychological functioning in a lower income, ethnically mixed sample of urban US women enrolled in a pregnancy cohort study.

Potential for Bias When Estimating Critical Windows for Air Pollution in Children's Health.

Evidence supports an association between maternal exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and children's health outcomes. Recent interest has focused on identifying critical windows of vulnerability. An analysis based on a distributed lag model (DLM) can yield estimates of a critical window that are different from those from an analysis that regresses the outcome on each of the 3 trimester-average exposures (TAEs).

Sex differences in sensitivity to prenatal and early childhood manganese exposure on neuromotor function in adolescents.

Introduction: While studies have suggested that exposure to manganese (Mn) may be associated with neurodevelopment in school-age children, there is limited information on prenatal and postnatal Mn exposures and tremor or motor function in children.

Methods: We measured Mn levels in dentine of shed teeth, representing prenatal, early postnatal, and cumulative childhood exposure windows, from 195 children (predominantly right-handed, 92%) in Italy. Pursuit Aiming, Luria Nebraska Motor Battery, as well as Tremor and Sway system from Computerized Adaptive Testing System (CATSYS) were administered at 11-14 years old.

Subconstructs of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale in a multi-ethnic inner-city population in the U.S.

The ten-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is one of the most widely used self-report measures of postpartum depression. Although originally described as a one-dimensional measure, the recognition that depressive symptoms may be differentially experienced across cultural and racial/ethnic groups has led to studies examining structural equivalence of the EPDS in different populations. Variation of the factor structure remains understudied across racial/ethnic groups of US women.

Prenatal particulate air pollution exposure and body composition in urban preschool children: Examining sensitive windows and sex-specific associations.

Background: Evolving animal studies and limited epidemiological data show that prenatal air pollution exposure is associated with childhood obesity. Timing of exposure and child sex may play an important role in these associations. We applied an innovative method to examine sex-specific sensitive prenatal windows of exposure to PM on anthropometric measures in preschool-aged children.

Prenatal particulate matter exposure and wheeze in Mexican children: Effect modification by prenatal psychosocial stress.

Background: Air pollution exposure in childhood is associated with greater incidence and exacerbation of asthma, particularly in children whose parents report high levels of psychological stress. However, this interaction has not been completely elucidated in pregnancy.

Objective: To examine whether the association between prenatal exposure to particulate matter no larger than 2.