Browsing by Author "Kukkonen, Aleksi"

Objectives: Bisphenol A (BPA) is commonly used plasticizer that has endocrine disrupting properties. Fetal exposure to BPA has been associated with offspring behavioural problems. These associations may be mediated through BPA-induced alterations in the offspring DNA methylation (DNAm). This study examined whether fetal BPA exposure associates with behavioural problems and whether DNAm biomarker score for early pregnancy BPA exposure is linked with behavioural problems in the offspring. Methods: Participants were 442 mother-child pairs of the Finnish PREDO-cohort. I measured BPA from the early pregnancy urine samples and assayed DNAm in the cord blood with Illumina 450k or EPIC array. Mothers reported behavioural problems of their offspring with the Child Behaviour Checklist/1.5-5 (CBCL/1.5-5) at the mean child age of 3.8 years (SD = 1.0 years). I used LASSO regression to create a DNAm score for early pregnancy BPA exposure and tested the associations between BPA exposure, the DNAm score, and CBCL/1.5-5 scores with linear and logistic regressions. Results: After adjustments, early pregnancy BPA exposure was associated with higher risk for clinically meaningful internalizing (p = .02) and externalizing (p = .04) behavioural problems in the offspring. The DNAm score included eight CpG sites, explained 4.8% of the BPA variation, and was borderline significantly associated with a risk for clinically meaningful internalizing (p = .05) and externalizing behavioural problems (p = .06). Conclusions: Early pregnancy BPA exposure associated and DNAm biomarker for BPA exposure borderline associated with offspring behavioural problems. DNAm biomarker score for fetal BPA exposure showed promise and should be studied further in subsequent studies.