Review of the environmental prenatal exposome and its relationship to maternal and fetal health

Abstract

Environmental chemicals comprise a major portion of the human exposome, with some shown to impact the health of susceptible populations, including pregnant women and developing fetuses. The placenta and cord blood serve as important biological windows into the maternal and fetal environments. In this article we review how environmental chemicals (defined here to include man-made chemicals [e.g., flame retardants, pesticides/herbicides, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances], toxins, metals, and other xenobiotic compounds) contribute to the prenatal exposome and highlight future directions to advance this research field. Our findings from a survey of recent literature indicate the need to better understand the breadth of environmental chemicals that reach the placenta and cord blood, as well as the linkages between prenatal exposures, mechanisms of toxicity, and subsequent health outcomes. Research efforts tailored towards addressing these needs will provide a more comprehensive understanding of how environmental chemicals impact maternal and fetal health.

Keywords: Developmental toxicity; Environment; Exposome; Fetus; Pregnancy.

Fig. 1.

Overview of environmental contaminants reaching the maternal and fetal exposomes (e.g. prenatal exposome), potentially influencing pregnancy outcomes (i.e., maternal and fetal health).

Fig. 2.

Integration of recent advances in analytical instrumentation, chemical databases, and computational tools and workflows to enable high-throughput chemical screening. The utilization of such integrative approaches will result in increased knowledge surrounding the fetal exposome.

Fig. 3.

Example toxicological endpoints and disease outcomes that can be related to measures of the prenatal exposome to better understand relationships and mechanisms underlying environmental exposure-induced disease.