40 Result(s)

Article

Placental DNA hypomethylation in association with particulate air pollution in early life

There is evidence that altered DNA methylation is an important epigenetic mechanism in prenatal programming and that developmental periods are sensitive to environmental stressors. We hypothesized that exposur...

Bram G Janssen, Lode Godderis, Nicky Pieters… in Particle and Fibre Toxicology (2013)

Article

Altered neonatal cord blood oxylipidome in association with exposure to particulate matter in the early life environment

Dries Martens, Sandra Gouveia-Figueira, Narjes Madhloum… in Archives of Public Health (2015)

Article

Recent exposure to ultrafine particles in school children alters miR-222 expression in the extracellular fraction of saliva

Ultrafine particles (<100 nm) are ubiquitous present in the air and may contribute to adverse cardiovascular effects. Exposure to air pollutants can alter miRNA expression, which can affect downstream signalin...

Annette Vriens, Tim S. Nawrot, Nelly D. Saenen, Eline B. Provost… in Environmental Health (2016)

Article

Maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index and newborn telomere length

Newborn telomere length sets telomere length for later life. At birth, telomere length is highly variable among newborns and the environmental factors during in utero life for this observation remain largely unid...

Dries S. Martens, Michelle Plusquin, Wilfried Gyselaers, Immaculata De Vivo… in BMC Medicine (2016)

Article

Stem cell proliferation patterns as an alternative for in vivo prediction and discrimination of carcinogenic compounds

One of the major challenges in the development of alternative carcinogenicity assays is the prediction of non-genotoxic carcinogens. The variety of non-genotoxic cancer pathways complicates the search for reli...

An-Sofie Stevens, Maxime Willems, Michelle Plusquin, Jan-Pieter Ploem… in Scientific Reports (2017)

Article

Transcriptome-wide analyses indicate mitochondrial responses to particulate air pollution exposure

Due to their lack of repair capacity mitochondria are critical targets for environmental toxicants. We studied genes and pathways reflecting mitochondrial responses to short- and medium-term PM₁₀ exposure.

Ellen Winckelmans, Tim S Nawrot, Maria Tsamou, Elly Den Hond… in Environmental Health (2017)

Article

Telomere tracking from birth to adulthood and residential traffic exposure

Telomere attrition is extremely rapid during the first years of life, while lifestyle during adulthood exerts a minor impact. This suggests that early life is an important period in the determination of telome...

Esmée M. Bijnens, Maurice P. Zeegers, Catherine Derom, Dries S. Martens… in BMC Medicine (2017)

Article

Retinal microcirculation and leukocyte telomere length in the general population

Retinal arteriolar narrowing increases with age and predict adverse cardiovascular outcomes. Telomere length keeps track of the division of somatic cells and is a biomarker of biological age. We investigated t...

Dries S. Martens, Fang-Fei Wei, Bianca Cox, Michelle Plusquin… in Scientific Reports (2018)

Article

Children’s screen time alters the expression of saliva extracellular miR-222 and miR-146a

An imbalance between energy uptake and energy expenditure is the most important reason for increasing trends in obesity starting from early in life. Extracellular miRNAs are expressed in all bodily fluids and ...

Annette Vriens, Eline B. Provost, Nelly D. Saenen, Patrick De Boever… in Scientific Reports (2018)

Article

Cord blood leptin and insulin levels in association with mitochondrial DNA content

The developmental origins of health and disease theory states that a disturbance in the early life environment can contribute to disease risk in later life. Leptin and insulin are anorectic hormones involved i...

Annette Vriens, Michelle Plusquin, Willy Baeyens… in Journal of Translational Medicine (2018)

Article

Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies in neonates reveals widespread differential DNA methylation associated with birthweight

Birthweight is associated with health outcomes across the life course, DNA methylation may be an underlying mechanism. In this meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies of 8,825 neonates from 24 birt...

Leanne K. Küpers, Claire Monnereau, Gemma C. Sharp, Paul Yousefi… in Nature Communications (2019)

Article

Ambient black carbon particles reach the fetal side of human placenta

Particle transfer across the placenta has been suggested but to date, no direct evidence in real-life, human context exists. Here we report the presence of black carbon (BC) particles as part of combustion-der...

Hannelore Bové, Eva Bongaerts, Eli Slenders, Esmée M. Bijnens… in Nature Communications (2019)

Article

Breastfeeding predicts blood mitochondrial DNA content in adolescents

Nutrition during early childhood is linked to metabolic programming. We hypothesized that breastfeeding has long-term consequences on the energy metabolism exemplified by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). As part of ...

Charlotte Cosemans, Tim S. Nawrot, Bram G. Janssen, Annette Vriens… in Scientific Reports (2020)

Article

Epigenome-wide meta-analysis of blood DNA methylation in newborns and children identifies numerous loci related to gestational age

Preterm birth and shorter duration of pregnancy are associated with increased morbidity in neonatal and later life. As the epigenome is known to have an important role during fetal development, we investigated...

Simon Kebede Merid, Alexei Novoloaca, Gemma C. Sharp, Leanne K. Küpers… in Genome Medicine (2020)