Skip Navigation
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document
Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document

Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Prenatal acetaminophen exposure and risk of wheeze at age 5 years in an urban low-income cohort.

Authors: Perzanowski, Matthew S; Miller, Rachel L; Tang, Deliang; Ali, David; Garfinkel, Robin S; Chew, Ginger L; Goldstein, Inge F; Perera, Frederica P; Barr, R Graham

Published In Thorax, (2010 Feb)

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Acetaminophen has been associated with asthma and is in part metabolised via the glutathione pathway. Inner-city minority children have high asthma morbidity and a relatively high frequency of a minor allele variant in the glutathione S transferase Pi gene (GSTP1). We hypothesised that prenatal acetaminophen exposure would predict wheeze at age 5 years in an inner-city minority cohort and examined whether this association was modified by common polymorphisms in genes related to the glutathione pathway. METHODS: An ongoing population-based birth cohort study of Dominican Republic and African-American children in New York prospectively assessed the use of analgesics during pregnancy and current wheeze at age 5 years in 301 children. Genotyping was conducted for GST polymorphisms. Binomial regression was used to adjust for potential confounders including postnatal acetaminophen use. RESULTS: 34% of mothers reported acetaminophen use during pregnancy and 27% of children had current wheeze at 5 years. Prenatal exposure to acetaminophen predicted current wheeze (multivariate relative risk 1.71; 95% CI 1.20 to 2.42; p=0.003), and the risk increased monotonically with increasing number of days of prenatal acetaminophen exposure (p trend <0.001). 68% of children had at least one copy of the GSTP1 minor allele (Val). The risk of wheeze was modified by GSTP1 (additive interaction p=0.009) and was observed only among children with the GSTP1 minor allele. CONCLUSIONS: Prenatal exposure to acetaminophen predicted wheeze at age 5 years in an inner-city minority cohort. The risk was modified by a functional polymorphism in GSTP1, suggesting a mechanism involving the glutathione pathway.

PubMed ID: 19850963 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Acetaminophen/adverse effects*; Allergens/immunology; Analgesics, Non-Narcotic/adverse effects*; Asthma/chemically induced*; Asthma/embryology; Asthma/genetics; Child, Preschool; Female; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genotype; Glutathione S-Transferase pi/genetics; Humans; Immunoglobulin E/blood; Male; Maternal-Fetal Exchange; Pregnancy; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects*; Prospective Studies; Respiratory Sounds/etiology; Socioeconomic Factors; Urban Health/statistics & numerical data

Back
to Top