The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) is an ongoing prebirt cohort study. Enrollment was completed in 2008 resulting in 106,980 pregnancies in the study. The study is based on questionnaires completed by the mother and father, and biological specimens are collected from the mother, father and child. The main purpose of the study is to find causes of diseases. NIEHS is providing partial support for the study, and in 2002 expanded the data collection protocol to include collection of more biologic specimens from the mothers during the 17th week of pregnancy (additional serum, a specimen of whole blood collected in a trace-element free container, and urine). These specimens will enhance the ability to examine the relation of environmental exposures in relation to various health outcomes in the children and their mothers. As of April 30, 2009, 77,104 subjects had provided blood and urine that was collected in conjunction with NIEHS. In the past year, in preparation for a new study in MoBa, we published a paper on the ability of various laboratories to measure a group of environmental contaminants that we plan to study, perfluorinated alkyls. We also published a report about levels of 3 types of environmental contaminants in the urine of MoBa mothers: organophosphate pesticides, bisphenol A, and phthalates. The levels of bisphenol A and organophosphate pesticide metabolites were higher than in the U.S., making the MoBa resource an especially valuable setting for studies of associated health outcomes. We added to the MoBa protocol the collection additional urine specimens in pregnancy, at weeks 23 and 29, for a subset of women. 690 women have a complete set of three urine specimens from pregnancy. We wrote a protocol to measure the levels of metabolites of organophosphate pesticides and bisphenol A in these specimens, to determine how reproducibile the levels are;the specimens are now being analyzed. This information will help us plan future studies on associations with health outcomes. We also put in place a protocol to examine perfluorinated alklys in relation to time-to-pregnancy among women in the MoBa cohort. The analysis of specimens will begin this fall. Because the study is in a relatively early phase, the number of scientific reports is still limited. At NIEHS, we are developing several studies that will be nested within MoBa. A list of the studies currently planed includes: Risk Factors for Cleft Lip and Palate, A Search for the Non-mendelian Transmission of Human Genes, Mother's Physical Activity During Pregnancy and Fetal Loss, Dietary Intake and Gestational Diabetes, Physical Activity in Pregnancy and Infant Neurodevelopment, Maternal Autoantibodies against Folate Receptors as a Risk Factor for Folate Sensitive Birth Defects, and Organophosphate Pesticide Exposure and Risk of Autism.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 32 publications
