THE ROLE OF ENDOCRINE DISRUPTORS IN CHILDHOOD OBESITY

To test whether prenatal and early-life exposures to the endocrine disrupters PAH and BPA predict body size growth trajectories and childhood obesity at age 8-10 years. This will be accomplished by following our ongoing birth cohort to age 8-10 years, measuring height and weight at ages 5, 7, 8-10, body composition at age 7, 8-10, and metabolic syndrome components at age 8-10 years. This work takes advantage of a sophisticated geographic information systems based data on the children's neighborhoods to control for social (e.g. poverty and socio-demographic composition) and physical factors (e.g. play grounds, parks, fast-food) likely to predict childhood obesity. To determine whether differences in the methylation status of key genes involved in adipogenesis (PPARv2, C/EBPq, C/EBPli, C/EBP6 and DLK1) and appetite control (FTO) mediate the association between xenobiotic exposures and childhood obesity outcomes. Methylation of these genes was measured in cord white blood cell DNA by pyrosequencing.