Pollution-related asthma can start in the womb
POSTED February 15, 2009 - 13:51 | POSTED BY Jaspreet Kaur
Last edited by Shikha Patial on February 15, 2009 - 14:38
Washington, February 15: Pollution-related asthma can begin in the womb, as per a latest research. The study has been done by researchers from the University of Cincinnati (UC) and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
According to the researchers, kids born in areas having high levels of vehicular pollution are more prone to developing asthma because of genetic variations acquired in the womb.
For the research purposes, umbilical corddefine blood of 56 New York City children was analyzed. Researchers took biological samples from the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) birth cohort of mothers and children residing in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx.
Researchers found indication of a likely new biomarker. This was an epigenetic modification in ACSL3 gene. It is linked with prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
These types of chemical compounds are formed as a result of partial combustion of carbon-consisting fuels. This leads to high pollution levels in areas with increased traffic.
The current study is the first-of-its-kind to look at the effects of exposure to air pollutants during pregnancy and epigenetic changes. These changes can disturb the normal functioning of genesdefine by influencing their expression. However, they do not cause any structural changes in the genes associated with asthma.
The research team studied the link between prenatal PAH exposure and childhood asthma. The hypothesis was that transplacental exposure to PAHs can lead to reprogramming of foetal genes which can ultimately cause asthma during childhood.
Dr. Shuk-mei Ho, senior author of the paper and chairperson of the UC’s Department of Environmental Health and the director of the Center for Environmental Genetics, was quoted as saying, “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.”
If further studies re-establish the facts of this study, then changes in the ACSL3 gene can help in diagnosing pollution-related asthma at an earlier stage.
The present study findings have been published in the journal PLoS ONE.
