The early-life exposome: Description and patterns in six European countries

Tamayo-Uria, Ibon; Maitre, Léa; Thomsen, Cathrine; Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark; Chatzi, Leda; Siroux, Valérie; Aasvang, Gunn Marit; Agier, Lydiane; Andrušaitytė, Sandra; Casas, Maribel; Castro, Montserrat de; Dėdelė, Audrius; Haug, Line Småstuen; Heude, Barbara; Gützkow, Kristine B.; Krog, Norun Hjertager; Mason, Dan; McEachan, Rosemary; Meltzer, Helle Margrete; Petravičienė, Inga; Robinson, Oliver; Roumeliotaki, Theano; Sakhi, Amrit Kaur; Urquiza, José; Vafeiadi, Marina; Waiblinger, Dagmar; Warembourg, Charline; Wright, John; Slama, Rémy; Vrijheid, Martine; Basagaña, Xavier

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2018.11.067

Cited by 97 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Many scientists have followed up on the idea and suggested further specifications for specific sensitive time periods (e.g. pregnancy, perinatal period) [17,82,95], selected tissues (e.g. teeth, placenta) [5,56], focus on specific methodologies [22,63] or prevalent diseases [83].…”

Section: Rationale and Background (Benefit And Definition Of The Expomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The HELIX project, in its goal to provide a global view, developed a multistep approach to characterize various co-exposures in early life including outdoor exposures, individual exposures, and an integration step for external and internal exposure [102]. As their most complex exposure perspective, they defined exposure groups comprising items such as atmospheric pollutants, surrounding natural spaces, traffic, water disinfection by-products, tobacco smoking, lifestyle or socio-economic capital [95] testing whether grouping at this level would already allow suitable simplification of the chemical exposome characterization.…”

Section: Exposure Analysis Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The HELIX project characterized the exposome for 87 and 122 diverse exposure variables for mothers during pregnancy and their children during development (6-11 years of age), respectively. It was based on six European birth cohort studies, comprising of 1300 mother-child pairs [95]. Among them, about 60 different chemicals were determined in blood or urine samples [43] (see Table 1).…”

Section: Exposure Analysis Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unravelling the chemical exposome in cohort studies: routes explored and steps to become comprehensive

et al. 2021

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Environmental factors contribute to the risk for adverse health outcomes against a background of genetic predisposition. Among these factors, chemical exposures may substantially contribute to disease risk and adverse outcomes. In fact, epidemiological cohort studies have established associations between exposure against individual chemicals and adverse health effects. Yet, in daily life individuals are exposed to complex mixtures in varying compositions. To capture the totality of environmental exposures the concept of the exposome has been developed. Here, we undertake an overview of major exposome projects, which pioneered the field of exposomics and explored the links between chemical exposure and health outcomes using cohort studies. We seek to reflect their achievements with regard to (i) capturing a comprehensive picture of the environmental chemical exposome, (ii) aggregating internal exposures using chemical and bioanalytical means of detection, and (iii) identifying associations that provide novel options for risk assessment and intervention. Various complementary approaches can be distinguished in addressing relevant exposure routes and it emerges that individual exposure histories may not easily be grouped. The number of chemicals for which human exposure can be detected is substantial and highlights the reality of mixture exposures. Yet, to a large extent it depends on targeted chemical analysis with the specific challenges to capture all relevant exposure routes and assess the chemical concentrations occurring in humans. The currently used approaches imply prior knowledge or hypotheses about relevant exposures. Typically, the number of chemicals considered in exposome projects is counted in dozens—in contrast to the several thousands of chemicals for which occurrence have been reported in human serum and urine. Furthermore, health outcomes are often still compared to single chemicals only. Moreover, explicit consideration of mixture effects and the interrelations between different outcomes to support causal relationships and identify risk drivers in complex mixtures remain underdeveloped and call for specifically designed exposome-cohort studies.

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Section: Rationale and Background (Benefit And Definition Of The Expomentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Exposure Analysis Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Exposure Analysis Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unravelling the chemical exposome in cohort studies: routes explored and steps to become comprehensive

et al. 2021

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“…Approximately a third of the retained exposome studies had a prospective longitudinal design (n = 30, 37%), of which 26 were based on nine large population-based cohorts; the rest four longitudinal studies were relatively small in size, including between 6 and 378 subjects [46][47][48][49]. Out of the 26 studies, eleven were published as part of the Human Early-Life Exposome (HELIX) project using data from six European birth cohorts ( [50][51][52][53][54][55][56]), and among these studies, four belonged to the Spanish INMA (INfancia y Medio Ambiente) [57][58][59][60][61]. Four studies (of the 26) were published as part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a 20-year population-based cohort designed to determine the influence of environmental (physical and psychological) and genetic factors on the health status and development of the offspring.…”

Section: Description Of the Selected Articlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Environmental factors were examined in association with gene expression profiling in four studies (5%)[65,71,78,108]. Five studies (6%) aimed to identify clusters of exposures, of which one was examined in association with obesity and another one with type II diabetes and all-cause mortality[8,54,61,86,107].In addition, twelve studies (16%) aimed to characterize the endogenous response to a variety of environmental stimuli, such as endocrine disruptors (phthalate metabolites, phenols), non-persistent chemicals (dialkyl phosphate pesticides metabolites, and cotinine), and other environmental chemicals, such as organochlorine compounds (OCs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), per-and poly-fluoroalkyl…”

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confidence: 99%

A Scoping Review on the Characteristics of Human Exposome Studies

2019

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Embraced as a breaking through methodological framework, the exposome is accompanied by novel exposure assessment methods and data processing tools or models. However, systematic mapping of the landscape of exposome studies, including their characteristics, components, tools and language has not been done so far. We conducted a scoping review to answer the question: "Which main domains of the human exposome have been included in the literature and which metrics of exposure(s)/ outcome(s) have been used?" We performed a comprehensive search of human studies containing the word "exposom*" and published up to March 8, 2019. We screened 1133 records and 82 studies were included in the analysis. Most studies took place in Europe. Data analysis showed the non-systematic use of the exposome term. Most studies had a longitudinal design (n = 30, 37%), were conducted on adults (n = 40, 51%), and had a clearly defined health outcome in methodology (n = 48, 61%). Omics tools, such as metabolomics were used in 38 studies (49%), while environment-wide association analysis was used in 9 studies (11%). Thirty-seven (48%) studies included all three exposome domains (general external, specific external and internal) while 33 (42%) studies included two. Despite the large number of environmental components that comprise each of the exposome domains, only a subset has been currently studied. An optimized consideration of the components from all exposome domains, as well as the standardization of the exposure and outcome assessment methods is warranted to advance the utility of the human exposome concept.

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Prenatal Exposure to Chemical Mixtures and Metabolic Syndrome Risk in Children

Güil-Oumrait,

Stratakis,

Maitre

et al. 2024

JAMA Netw Open

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ImportancePrenatal exposure to ubiquitous endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may increase the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in children, but few studies have studied chemical mixtures or explored underlying protein and metabolic signatures.ObjectiveTo investigate associations of prenatal exposure to EDC mixtures with MetS risk score in children and identify associated proteins and metabolites.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis population-based, birth cohort study used data collected between April 1, 2003, and February 26, 2016, from the Human Early Life Exposome cohort based in France, Greece, Lithuania, Norway, Spain, and the UK. Eligible participants included mother-child pairs with measured prenatal EDC exposures and complete data on childhood MetS risk factors, proteins, and metabolites. Data were analyzed between October 2022 and July 2023.ExposuresNine metals, 3 organochlorine pesticides, 5 polychlorinated biphenyls, 2 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), 5 perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), 10 phthalate metabolites, 3 phenols, 4 parabens, and 4 organophosphate pesticide metabolites measured in urine and blood samples collected during pregnancy.Main Outcomes and MeasuresAt 6 to 11 years of age, a composite MetS risk score was constructed using z scores of waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and insulin levels. Childhood levels of 44 urinary metabolites, 177 serum metabolites, and 35 plasma proteins were quantified using targeted methods. Associations were assessed using bayesian weighted quantile sum regressions applied to mixtures for each chemical group.ResultsThe study included 1134 mothers (mean [SD] age at birth, 30.7 [4.9] years) and their children (mean [SD] age, 7.8 [1.5] years; 617 male children [54.4%] and 517 female children [45.6%]; mean [SD] MetS risk score, −0.1 [2.3]). MetS score increased per 1-quartile increase of the mixture for metals (β = 0.44; 95% credible interval [CrI], 0.30 to 0.59), organochlorine pesticides (β = 0.22; 95% CrI, 0.15 to 0.29), PBDEs (β = 0.17; 95% CrI, 0.06 to 0.27), and PFAS (β = 0.19; 95% CrI, 0.14 to 0.24). High-molecular weight phthalate mixtures (β = −0.07; 95% CrI, −0.10 to −0.04) and low-molecular weight phthalate mixtures (β = −0.13; 95% CrI, −0.18 to −0.08) were associated with a decreased MetS score. Most EDC mixtures were associated with elevated proinflammatory proteins, amino acids, and altered glycerophospholipids, which in turn were associated with increased MetS score.Conclusions and RelevanceThis cohort study suggests that prenatal exposure to EDC mixtures may be associated with adverse metabolic health in children. Given the pervasive nature of EDCs and the increase in MetS, these findings hold substantial public health implications.

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The early-life exposome: Description and patterns in six European countries

Cited by 97 publications

References 40 publications

Unravelling the chemical exposome in cohort studies: routes explored and steps to become comprehensive

Unravelling the chemical exposome in cohort studies: routes explored and steps to become comprehensive

A Scoping Review on the Characteristics of Human Exposome Studies

Prenatal Exposure to Chemical Mixtures and Metabolic Syndrome Risk in Children

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