Skip to main page content
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.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Sep 10;8(9):e021311.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-021311.

Human Early Life Exposome (HELIX) study: a European population-based exposome cohort

Léa Maitre  1   2   3 , Jeroen de Bont  1   2   3 , Maribel Casas  1   2   3 , Oliver Robinson  1   2   3   4 , Gunn Marit Aasvang  5 , Lydiane Agier  6 , Sandra Andrušaitytė  7 , Ferran Ballester  3   8   9 , Xavier Basagaña  1   2   3 , Eva Borràs  2   10 , Céline Brochot  11 , Mariona Bustamante  1   2   3   10 , Angel Carracedo  12   13 , Montserrat de Castro  1   2   3 , Audrius Dedele  7 , David Donaire-Gonzalez  1   2   3 , Xavier Estivill  14   15 , Jorunn Evandt  5 , Serena Fossati  1   2   3 , Lise Giorgis-Allemand  6 , Juan R Gonzalez  1   2   3 , Berit Granum  5 , Regina Grazuleviciene  7 , Kristine Bjerve Gützkow  5 , Line Småstuen Haug  5 , Carles Hernandez-Ferrer  1   2   3 , Barbara Heude  16 , Jesus Ibarluzea  3   17   18   19 , Jordi Julvez  1   2   3   4 , Marianna Karachaliou  20 , Hector C Keun  21 , Norun Hjertager Krog  5 , Chung-Ho E Lau  21   22 , Vasiliki Leventakou  20 , Sarah Lyon-Caen  6 , Cyntia Manzano  1   2   3 , Dan Mason  23 , Rosemary McEachan  23 , Helle Margrete Meltzer  5 , Inga Petraviciene  7 , Joane Quentin  6 , Theano Roumeliotaki  20 , Eduard Sabido  2 , Pierre-Jean Saulnier  24 , Alexandros P Siskos  21 , Valérie Siroux  6 , Jordi Sunyer  1   2   3   4 , Ibon Tamayo  1   3   25 , Jose Urquiza  1   2   3 , Marina Vafeiadi  20 , Diana van Gent  1   2   3 , Marta Vives-Usano  1   2   3   10 , Dagmar Waiblinger  23 , Charline Warembourg  1   2   3 , Leda Chatzi  26   27 , Muireann Coen  22 , Peter van den Hazel  28 , Mark J Nieuwenhuijsen  1   2   3 , Rémy Slama  6 , Cathrine Thomsen  5 , John Wright  23 , Martine Vrijheid  1   2   3
Affiliations

Human Early Life Exposome (HELIX) study: a European population-based exposome cohort

Léa Maitre et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Purpose: Essential to exposome research is the collection of data on many environmental exposures from different domains in the same subjects. The aim of the Human Early Life Exposome (HELIX) study was to measure and describe multiple environmental exposures during early life (pregnancy and childhood) in a prospective cohort and associate these exposures with molecular omics signatures and child health outcomes. Here, we describe recruitment, measurements available and baseline data of the HELIX study populations.

Participants: The HELIX study represents a collaborative project across six established and ongoing longitudinal population-based birth cohort studies in six European countries (France, Greece, Lithuania, Norway, Spain and the UK). HELIX used a multilevel study design with the entire study population totalling 31 472 mother-child pairs, recruited during pregnancy, in the six existing cohorts (first level); a subcohort of 1301 mother-child pairs where biomarkers, omics signatures and child health outcomes were measured at age 6-11 years (second level) and repeat-sampling panel studies with around 150 children and 150 pregnant women aimed at collecting personal exposure data (third level).

Findings to date: Cohort data include urban environment, hazardous substances and lifestyle-related exposures for women during pregnancy and their offspring from birth until 6-11 years. Common, standardised protocols were used to collect biological samples, measure exposure biomarkers and omics signatures and assess child health across the six cohorts. Baseline data of the cohort show substantial variation in health outcomes and determinants between the six countries, for example, in family affluence levels, tobacco smoking, physical activity, dietary habits and prevalence of childhood obesity, asthma, allergies and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Future plans: HELIX study results will inform on the early life exposome and its association with molecular omics signatures and child health outcomes. Cohort data are accessible for future research involving researchers external to the project.

Keywords: birth cohort; community child health; epidemiology; exposome; omics; public health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart describing design and available data. GIS, Geographic Intelligent Software; HELIX, Human Early Life Exposome; miRNA, microRNA; mtDNA, mitochondrial DNA. *Omics data available after quality control
Figure 2
Figure 2
Prevalence of children with food allergy, asthma, overweight/obesity and ADHD symptoms in the HELIX subcohort at 6–11 years. BiB, Born in Bradford; EDEN, Étude des Déterminants pré et postnatals du développement et de la santé de l’Enfant; HELIX, Human Early Life Exposome; INMA, INfancia y Medio Ambiente; KANC, Kaunus cohort; MoBa, Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study; zBMI, age standardized z-score for body mass index.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wild CP. Complementing the genome with an "exposome": the outstanding challenge of environmental exposure measurement in molecular epidemiology. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2005;14:1847–50. 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-05-0456 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wild CP. The exposome: from concept to utility. Int J Epidemiol 2012;41:24–32. 10.1093/ije/dyr236 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Vrijheid M, Slama R, Robinson O, et al. . The human early-life exposome (HELIX): project rationale and design. Environ Health Perspect 2014;122:535–44. 10.1289/ehp.1307204 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Robinson O, Vrijheid M. The pregnancy exposome. Curr Environ Health Rep 2015;2:204–13. 10.1007/s40572-015-0043-2 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wright J, Small N, Raynor P, et al. . Cohort profile: the born in Bradford multi-ethnic family cohort study. Int J Epidemiol 2013;42:978–91. 10.1093/ije/dys112 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms