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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: DDT exposure during pregnancy and DNA methylation alterations in female offspring in the Child Health and Development Study.

Authors: Wu, Hui-Chen; Cohn, Barbara A; Cirillo, Piera M; Santella, Regina M; Terry, Mary Beth

Published In Reprod Toxicol, (2020 Mar)

Abstract: Studies measuring dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) exposure during key windows of susceptibility including the intrauterine period suggest that DDT exposure is associated with breast cancer risk. We hypothesized that prenatal DDT exposure is associated with DNA methylation. Using prospective data from 316 daughters in the Child Health and Development Study, we examined the association between prenatal exposure to DDTs and DNA methylation in blood collected in midlife (mean age: 49 years). To identify differentially methylated regions (DMRs) associated with markers of DDTs (p,p'-DDT and the primary metabolite of p,p'-DDT, p,p'-DDE, and o,p'-DDT, the primary constituents of technical DDT), we measured methylation in 30 genes important to breast cancer. We observed DDT DMRs in three genes, CCDC85A, CYP1A1 and ZFPM2, each of which has been previously implicated in pubertal development and breast cancer susceptibility. These findings suggest prenatal DDT exposure may have life-long consequence through alteration in genes relevant to breast cancer.

PubMed ID: 30822522 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Adult; Breast Neoplasms/epidemiology*; Breast Neoplasms/genetics; California/epidemiology; Child; Child Development; Child Health; Cytochrome P-450 CYP1A1/genetics; DDT/blood*; DNA Methylation*; DNA-Binding Proteins/genetics; Environmental Pollutants/blood*; Female; Humans; Maternal Exposure*; Maternal-Fetal Exchange; Middle Aged; Pregnancy; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects/epidemiology*; Risk Factors; Transcription Factors/genetics

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