TY  - JOUR
A1  - Braun, Markus
A1  - Klingelhöfer, Doris
A1  - Oremek, Gerhard
A1  - Quarcoo, David
A1  - Groneberg, Jan David Alexander
T1  - Influence of second-hand smoke and prenatal tobacco smoke exposure on biomarkers, genetics and physiological processes in children - an overview in research insights of the last few years
T2  - International journal of environmental research and public health
N2  - Children are commonly exposed to second-hand smoke (SHS) in the domestic environment or inside vehicles of smokers. Unfortunately, prenatal tobacco smoke (PTS) exposure is still common, too. SHS is hazardous to the health of smokers and non-smokers, but especially to that of children. SHS and PTS increase the risk for children to develop cancers and can trigger or worsen asthma and allergies, modulate the immune status, and is harmful to lung, heart and blood vessels. Smoking during pregnancy can cause pregnancy complications and poor birth outcomes as well as changes in the development of the foetus. Lately, some of the molecular and genetic mechanisms that cause adverse health effects in children have been identified. In this review, some of the current insights are discussed. In this regard, it has been found in children that SHS and PTS exposure is associated with changes in levels of enzymes, hormones, and expression of genes, micro RNAs, and proteins. PTS and SHS exposure are major elicitors of mechanisms of oxidative stress. Genetic predisposition can compound the health effects of PTS and SHS exposure. Epigenetic effects might influence in utero gene expression and disease susceptibility. Hence, the limitation of domestic and public exposure to SHS as well as PTS exposure has to be in the focus of policymakers and the public in order to save the health of children at an early age. Global substantial smoke-free policies, health communication campaigns, and behavioural interventions are useful and should be mandatory.
KW  - environmental tobacco smoke
KW  - passive smoke
KW  - smoking in pregnancy
KW  - maternal tobacco smoke
KW  - asthma
KW  - allergy
KW  - atopy
KW  - immunity
KW  - wheezing
KW  - genetic predisposition
Y1  - 2020
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/54864
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-548645
SN  - 1660-4601
SN  - 1661-7827
N1  - This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
VL  - 17
IS  - 9, Art. 3212
SP  - 1
EP  - 25
PB  - MDPI AG
CY  - Basel
ER  -