Effect of maternal folate status in early pregnancy on childhood asthma through epigenetic modulation

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25860433
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Epidemiology and preventive medicine
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: MIYASHITA Chihiro 北海道大学, 環境健康科学研究教育センター, 特任准教授 (70632389)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 環境疫学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Subjects of 1262 mother-child pairs who have been recruited on the Hokkaido birth cohort study, were included in this study. The median concentration of folic acid during first trimester in maternal serum was 7.3 ng/ml, and there was no significant difference between a case group of developing asthma and a control group of non-asthma at 7 years old children. There were no associations between concentration of serum folate (continuous), or folic acid supplement intake (categorical) and risk of asthma at 7 years old children. In this study, we could not observe the adverse effect of folic acid state during pregnancy on risk of asthma at 7 years old children. In a future study, we will stratify subjects into 3 groups of deficient, insufficient, or sufficient serum folate levels and analyze genetic factor using children saliva and DNA samples with a larger sample size.

Free Research Field

環境疫学