A mother’s exposure to traffic-related air pollution during the first three months of pregnancy is associated with an increase in her child’s risk of having allergic sensitization by age one, according to CHILD Cohort Study research published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in December 2019.
“This finding supports mounting evidence that traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) exposure in utero can be harmful and is linked to allergic sensitization, which is a risk factor for the development of asthma and allergies later in childhood,” said senior author Dr. Stuart Turvey.
The study is the first to provide evidence that a biological marker known as “epigenetic gestational age” (eGA) can be used to understand how TRAP can change the molecular make-up of a cell to affect the activity of a baby’s genes related to asthma and allergy.
“We demonstrated that eGA is in the causal pathway linking air pollution to the risk of developing allergies,” explained lead author Dr. Hind Sbihi. “We used cells from the baby’s umbilical cord to measure DNA methylation, which are biochemical marks on the DNA and its proteins. These marks allowed us to estimate the infant’s eGA and compare it to the infant’s actual chronological age; when there was a mismatch between the eGA and chronological age related to TRAP exposure, we found there was an increased risk for allergic sensitization.”
