Prenatal environmental exposures associated with sex differences in childhood obesity and neurodevelopment.

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April 12, 2023  │ Natàlia Carreras-Gallo, Varun B. Dwaraka, Ryan Smith, Tavis Mendez, Hannah Went

Abstract or Summary

Obesity and neurodevelopmental delay are complex traits that often co-occur and differ between boys and girls. Prenatal exposures are believed to influence children’s obesity, but it is unknown whether exposures of pregnant mothers can confer a different risk of obesity between sexes, and whether they can affect neurodevelopment. We analyzed data from 1044 children from the HELIX project, comprising 93 exposures during pregnancy, and clinical, neuropsychological, and methylation data during childhood (5–11 years). Using exposome-wide interaction analyses, we identified prenatal exposures with the highest sexual dimorphism in obesity risk, which were used to create a multi-exposure profile.