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Bos B, Barratt B, Batalle D, Gale-Grant O, Hughes EJ, Beevers S, Cordero-Grande L, Price AN, Hutter J, Hajnal JV, Kelly FJ, David Edwards A, Counsell SJ. Prenatal exposure to air pollution is associated with structural changes in the neonatal brain. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2023; 174:107921. [PMID: 37058974 PMCID: PMC10410199 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.107921] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2022] [Revised: 03/23/2023] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Prenatal exposure to air pollution is associated with adverse neurologic consequences in childhood. However, the relationship between in utero exposure to air pollution and neonatal brain development is unclear. METHODS We modelled maternal exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) at postcode level between date of conception to date of birth and studied the effect of prenatal air pollution exposure on neonatal brain morphology in 469 (207 male) healthy neonates, with gestational age of ≥36 weeks. Infants underwent MR neuroimaging at 3 Tesla at 41.29 (36.71-45.14) weeks post-menstrual age (PMA) as part of the developing human connectome project (dHCP). Single pollutant linear regression and canonical correlation analysis (CCA) were performed to assess the relationship between air pollution and brain morphology, adjusting for confounders and correcting for false discovery rate. RESULTS Higher exposure to PM10 and lower exposure to NO2 was strongly canonically correlated to a larger relative ventricular volume, and moderately associated with larger relative size of the cerebellum. Modest associations were detected with higher exposure to PM10 and lower exposure to NO2 and smaller relative cortical grey matter and amygdala and hippocampus, and larger relaive brainstem and extracerebral CSF volume. No associations were found with white matter or deep grey nuclei volume. CONCLUSIONS Our findings show that prenatal exposure to air pollution is associated with altered brain morphometry in the neonatal period, albeit with opposing results for NO2 and PM10. This finding provides further evidence that reducing levels of maternal exposure to particulate matter during pregnancy should be a public health priority and highlights the importance of understanding the impacts of air pollution on this critical development window.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brendan Bos
- MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, UK
| | - Ben Barratt
- MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, UK
| | - Dafnis Batalle
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London SE1 7EH, UK; Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Science, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK
| | - Oliver Gale-Grant
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London SE1 7EH, UK; Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Science, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK
| | - Emer J Hughes
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London SE1 7EH, UK
| | - Sean Beevers
- MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, UK
| | - Lucilio Cordero-Grande
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London SE1 7EH, UK; Biomedical Image Technologies, ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and CIBER-BBN, Madrid, Spain
| | - Anthony N Price
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London SE1 7EH, UK
| | - Jana Hutter
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London SE1 7EH, UK
| | - Joseph V Hajnal
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London SE1 7EH, UK
| | - Frank J Kelly
- MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, UK
| | - A David Edwards
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London SE1 7EH, UK
| | - Serena J Counsell
- Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London SE1 7EH, UK.
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Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded scientists and clinicians about the importance of public engagement with science. One way to make this routine, and improve engagement skills of staff and students, is to embed an informal science learning centre within a research institute.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frances R Balkwill
- Centre for Tumour Microenvironment, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
- Centre of the Cell, Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
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Whitehouse A, Grigg J. Air pollution and children's health: where next? BMJ Paediatr Open 2021; 5:e000706. [PMID: 33907718 PMCID: PMC8051372 DOI: 10.1136/bmjpo-2020-000706] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2021] [Revised: 03/29/2021] [Accepted: 04/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Abigail Whitehouse
- Centre for Genomics and Child Health, Queen Mary University of London, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK
| | - Jonathan Grigg
- Centre for Genomics and Child Health, Queen Mary University of London, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK
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