Associations of Childhood and Perinatal Blood Metals with Children’s Gut Microbiomes in a Canadian Gestation Cohort
Yike Shen, Hannah E. Laue, Martha J. Shrubsole, Haotian Wu, Tessa R. Bloomquist, Annie Larouche, Kankan Zhao, Feng Gao, Amélie Boivin, Diddier Prada, Darel J. Hunting, Virginie Gillet, Larissa Takser, Andrea A. Baccarelli
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The gut microbiome is important in modulating health in childhood. Metal exposures affect multiple health outcomes, but their ability to modify bacterial communities in children is poorly understood. OBJECTIVES: We assessed the associations of childhood and perinatal blood metal levels with childhood gut microbiome diversity, structure, species, gene family-inferred species, and potential pathway alterations. METHODS: ). We used multiple covariate-adjusted statistical models to determine microbiome associations with continuous blood metal levels, including linear regression (Shannon and Pielou alpha diversity indexes), permutational multivariate analysis of variance (adonis; beta diversity distance matrices), and multivariable association model (MaAsLin2; phylum, family, species, gene family-inferred species, and pathways). RESULTS: ). Finally, neither perinatal nor childhood metal concentrations were associated with children's gut microbial inter- and intrasubject diversity. DISCUSSION: Our findings suggest both long- and short-term associations between metal exposure and the childhood gut microbiome, with stronger associations observed with more recent exposure. Future epidemiologic analyses may elucidate whether the observed changes in the microbiome relate to children's health. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP9674.