Human milk EV-miRNAs: a novel biomarker for air pollution exposure during pregnancy

Abstract

Exposure to ambient and near-roadway air pollution during pregnancy has been linked with several adverse health outcomes for pregnant women and their babies. Emerging research indicates that microRNA (miRNA) expression can be altered by exposure to air pollutants in a variety of tissues. Additionally, miRNAs from breast tissue and circulating miRNAs have previously been proposed as a biomarker for breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Therefore, this study sought to evaluate the associations between pregnancy exposures to ambient (PM _10 , PM _2.5 , NO _2 , O _3 ) and near-roadway air pollution (total NO _x , freeway NO _x , non-freeway NO _x ) with breast milk extracellular vesicle miRNA (EV-miRNA), measured at 1-month postpartum, in a cohort of 108 Latina women living in Southern California. We found that PM _10 exposure during pregnancy was positively associated with hsa-miR-200c-3p, hsa-miR-200b-3p, and hsa-let-7c-5p, and was negatively associated with hsa-miR-378d. We also found that pregnancy PM _2.5 exposure was positively associated with hsa-miR-200c-3p and hsa-miR-200b-3p. First and second trimester exposure to PM _10 and PM _2.5 was associated with several EV-miRNAs with putative messenger RNA targets related to cancer. This study provides preliminary evidence that air pollution exposure during pregnancy is associated with human milk EV-miRNA expression.

Keywords

• EV-miRNAs
• breast milk
• human milk
• air pollution
• particulate matter
• near-roadway air pollution