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Sensitivity of somatic mutations in human umbilical cord blood to maternal environments

Journal Article · · Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis
 [1]; ;  [2]
  1. Childrens Hospital and Univ. of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO (United States)
  2. Univ. of Vermont, Burlington, VT (United States); and others

To assess the potential effect of maternal environments on human embryonic/fecal somatic mutation, we measured the frequencies of hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT, hprt gene), mutant T lymphocytes (M{sub f}) and glycophorin A (GPA) variant erythrocytes (V{sub f}) of both allele-loss ({phi}/N) and allele-loss-and duplication (N/N) phenotypes in umbilical cord blood. The mean hprt M{sub F} were significantly lower than those previously reported for adult populations. In addition, the hprt M{sub f} was significantly higher than that of a published study of newborn cord blood samples from a geographically distant population (0.64 {+-} 0.41 x 10{sup -6}, N = 45, P < 0.01; t test, P < 0.01, Mann-Whitney U test). An examination of the demographic data from these two populations led to the sampling of 10 additional newborns specifically matched to the published study for maternal socioeconomic status. The hprt M{sub f} (0.70 {+-} 0.49 x 10{sup -6}) of this selected population was consistent with the published report and significantly lower than that of our initial population (P < 0.03, t test; P < 0.01, Mann-Whitney U test). These results indicate that there is an environmental effect related to maternal socioeconomic status of the frequency of embryonic/fetal somatic mutations. Molecular analyses of hprt mutants from this cohort with elevated M{sub f} revealed a significant decrease in the relative contribution of gross structural mutations to the overall M{sub f} (25 of 38, 66% vs. 34 of 41, 83%, P = 0.024, {chi}{sup 2} test), suggesting that the higher M{sub f} resulted from an elevated level of {open_quotes}point{close_quotes} mutations. No individual maternal demographic or environmental factor was identified as contributing more significantly than any other factor to the observed variability in hprt M{sub f} or GPA V{sub f}. 43 refs., 4 tabs.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
256469
Journal Information:
Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis, Journal Name: Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 26; ISSN 0893-6692; ISSN EMMUEG
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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