title: Teeth as a biomarker of past chemical exposure.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Accurate prenatal exposure assessment is one of the major challenges in environmental epidemiologic studies. Variations in placental transport make maternal biospecimens unreliable for many chemicals and fetal specimens collected at birth do not provide information on exposure timing over the prenatal period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The skeletal compartment is an important chemical repository, making calcified tissues important for measuring exposure. For decades teeth have been used to estimate long-term cumulative exposure to metals and some organic chemicals. Recently developed methodologies that combine sophisticated histological and chemical analysis to precisely sample tooth layers that correspond to specific life stages have the potential to reconstruct exposure in the second and third trimesters of prenatal development and during early childhood.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Such a retrospective biomarker that precisely measures exposure intensity and timing during prenatal development would substantially aid epidemiologic investigations, particularly case-control studies of rare health outcomes.
authors: Department of Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029, USA. manish.arora@sydney.edu.au
authors: Manish
authors: M
authors: Arora
authors: Christine
authors: C
authors: Austin
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008670:Metals / Q000032:analysis; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D014094:Tooth, Deciduous / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000254:growth & development
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D008670:Metals