Fig. 2

Diagram of the potential mechanisms of contaminant-induced epigenetic dysregulation. Environmental contaminants can be absorbed into the maternal blood through breathing, ingestion, drinking, or contact. Subsequently, certain environmental toxicants can pass the placental barrier and accumulate in the fetal bloodstream, causing epigenetic dysregulation through three potential ways: DNA oxidative damage may block the binding of DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) to the DNA template; activation of transcription factors (TFs) can inhibit DNMTs from accessing the DNA, resulting in gene-specific hypomethylation; interfering activity of DNMT or/and ten-eleven translocation (TET) enzyme families, leading to genomic methylation dysregulation. Adapted and used with permission from Martin et al. [114] and Luyten et al. [232]. Abbreviations: DNMT, DNA methyltransferase; TSS, transcription start site; TF, transcription factor; TET, ten-eleven translocation