Integrating -Omics Approaches into Human Population-Based Studies of Prenatal and Early-Life Exposures

Abstract

Purpose of review: We present the study design and methodological suggestions for population-based studies that integrate molecular -omics data and highlight recent studies that have used such data to examine the potential impacts of prenatal environmental exposures on fetal health.

Recent findings: Epidemiologic studies have observed numerous relationships between prenatal exposures (smoking, toxic metals, endocrine disruptors) and fetal and early-life molecular profiles, though such investigations have so far been dominated by epigenomic association studies. However, recent transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic studies have demonstrated their promise for the identification of exposure and response biomarkers. Molecular -omics have opened new avenues of research in environmental health that can improve our understanding of disease etiology and contribute to the development of exposure and response biomarkers. Studies that incorporate multiple -omics data from different molecular domains in longitudinally collected samples hold particular promise.

Keywords: Environmental; Epigenomics; Genomics; Metabolomics; Prenatal; Proteomics.

Figure 1 Caption:

Environmental exposures, as well as behaviors and disease processes, can influence the activities of multiple molecular domains individually or at the systems-level. Epigenomics includes molecules that interact with DNA to regulate gene expression potential, transcriptomics includes expression of RNAs, proteomics includes the expression levels of peptides, and metabolomics includes the activities and interactions of metabolites. While the genomic sequence is biologically inherited, genotype may influence the biological response to certain exposures across multiple domains. SNP = single nucleotide polymorphisms, CNV = copy number variations, CpG = cytosine-phosphate-guanine.