Early-life exposure and healthy outcomes in pregnancy and childhood by cohort study

Abstract

Purpose: Our Birth cohort aims to characterize early-life exposure to multiple chemical factors and healthy outcomes in pregnancy and childhood. Methods: Omics techniques will determine molecular profiles (genome, metabolome, epigenome and metagenome) associated with exposures. Statistical methods for multiple exposures will provide exposure-response estimates for disease in pregnancy, fetal and child growth, obesity, neurodevelopment and respiratory outcomes. We will use multiple platforms (Q-E-Obitrip, UPLC-MS/MS, GC-MS/MS, ICP-MS) for the detection of inner environmental chemicals exposure of parental and fetal biosamples, for example, pesticides, polybrominated biphenyls, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxin, metals, herbicides, metabolites, environmental phenols and so on. We have also employed 16S rRNA gene sequencing to identify potential effects caused by environmental chemicals on gut microbiota in newborns. Results：Our Birth Cohort contained six representative cities and established corresponding study centers in local Maternity and Child Health Hospitals. Pregnant women in the first trimester that registered in the hospitals were potential candidates. With strict exclusion criteria, we recruited the whole family of the eligible pregnancy as a unit after informed consent. From that day on, participants would be regularly followed up until the ninth year after delivery. Questionnaires with detailed data, multi-type biosamples and integrated clinical records were collected according to the protocols. Biosamples contain blood, urine, semen, placenta, amniotic fluid, umbilical cord blood, breast milk and meconium. By now, over 11,000 family units have been enrolled in our cohort. Conclusions：Our birth cohort is one of the first attempts to describe the early-life exposome of Chinese populations and unravel its relation to omics markers and health in pregnancy and childhood. This birth cohort study could be of great sense in the field of public health.