Prenatal exposure to chemicals in consumer and industrial products is associated with increased liver disease in children
Credit: Public Domain CC0 The increased incidence of potentially cancer-causing liver disease in children is associated with prenatal exposure to several endocrine-disrupting chemicals, report Mount Sinai researchers. This is the first comprehensive study of the association of prenatal exposure to these chemicals and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The researchers used cytokeratin-18 as a new marker of disease in children. The findings, reported in JAMA Network Open in July, underscoring the importance of understanding prenatal exposure to environmental chemicals as a risk factor for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is a rapidly growing problem in children that can lead to severe chronic liver disease and liver cancer in adulthood. “These findings may inform more efficient early-life prevention and intervention strategies to address the current epidemic of non-alcoholic fatty liver dise