May 17, 2017
10:00pm – 11:00pm
43-105 CHS (Center for Health Sciences) UCLA
COEH & Dept of Environmental Health Sciences 411 present:
“Impact of Prenatal Pollutants Exposures on Mitochondrial Function, mtDNA methylation, and Metabolic Health in Newborns”
About the lecture: Mitochondria are the cellular organelles that serve as central regulators of metabolism and oxidative stress. Dysfunctional mitochondria have been implicated in a variety of diseases and are important in fetal development. Mitochondria also contain the machinery required to epigenetically modify mtDNA and affect its transcription, suggesting that these modifications may have the ability to affect disease risk. We present evidence that prenatal air pollution exposures, either alone or in combination with mtDNA SNPs, may alter mtDNA methylation and influence child growth using data from 181 newborns in the Maternal and Child Health Study. Specifically, we evaluated traffic related air pollution and ambient air pollution exposures that were estimated based on participants’ residential addresses reported at study entry using California Line-Source Dispersion Model (CALINE4) or routine air monitoring data collected daily in California and available from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality System, respectively, in relation to birth weight and 6 month infant growth.
About the speaker: Carrie Breton received her MPH from UCLA and her Doctor of Science from the Harvard School of Public Health. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the USC Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Breton’s research interests focus on studying the effects of early life exposure to environmental pollutants, such as air pollution, on children’s health including metabolic, cardiovascular and respiratory health. She is also interested in understanding the biological mechanisms that underlie observed health effects. Dr. Breton is co-Director of the Maternal And Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES)” Center for Environmental Health Disparities which will examine whether pre- and postpartum environmental exposures, coupled with exposures to psychosocial and built environment stressors, lead to excessive gestational weight gain and postpartum weight retention in women and to perturbed infant growth trajectories and increased childhood obesity risk.