For many environmental exposures the most sensitive period of risk for later child health is pregnancy and theperinatal period, and these exposures are best ascertained from maternal self-report, biological specimens andobjective environmental data collected during pregnancy and immediately after birth. This study will examinethis sensitive period, measuring environmental contaminants, nutritional factors and inflammation in some2,000 mother infant pairs in the context of their social and psychological environment. We have two cohortstotaling nearly 1,000 women enrolled, interviewed and sampled early in pregnancy (most before 14 weeks)with biological specimens archived, and are now expanding the larger of our two cohorts to a statewideprobability sample of Michigan hospitals and clinics to enroll 1,000 more pregnancies. We are in contact withmore than 84% of our extant cohort members. We will use newborn dried blood spots (NDBS) from theMichigan Neonatal Biobank to further quantify environmental exposures, examine epigenomic changes, and,by accessing both the child's and the mother's newborn spots, study environmental effects across generations.In Flint, MI we will examine the effects of recent water contamination on fetus and child.We will focus on three important exposures in pregnancy. First, we will determine the effects of persistentorganic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals on cognitive outcomes. We hypothesize that the effects of thesetoxins will be mediated by epigenetic changes measured on NDBS, and will be amplified by grant-maternalexposure (measured on mother's blood spot when she was a newborn). We hypothesize that recent in uterolead exposure in Flint, MI, as assessed in NDBS, and in the shed teeth of exposed children, will also beassociated with impaired cognitive outcomes. Second, we will assess the effect of maternal nutritional andweight status in pregnancy on cognitive outcomes and childhood obesity, with a special focus on lowpregnancy iodine and/or iron status, agents interfering with thyroid iodine uptake (perchlorate, thiocyanate),abnormal thyroid hormone function and pregnancy-related weight changes. Finally, we will assess the effectsof pregnancy viral infection and maternal obesity on perinatal outcomes and behavior related to the autismspectrum. The effects of viral infections and maternal obesity are hypothesized to be mediated by increasedplacental and neonatal inflammation. The infant gut microbiome will also be assessed, as we anticipate that itmay be a pathway linking both nutritional factors and pregnancy inflammation to adverse child healthoutcomes.
Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)
Autism Research Database (AFD)
