Abstract: Congenital heart disease（CHD），the most common congenital malformation，results mainly from mutual reactions of hereditary and environmental factors. Exposure to heavy metals as an environmental factor has been proved to induce DNA methylation，which is one of the epigenetic mechanisms regulating gene expres⁃ sion. The alterations in epigenetic level may be critical for the development of CHD. By literature review，the corre⁃ lations of exposure to heavy metals such as lead（Pb），cadmium（Cd），arsenic（As），nickel（Ni），mercury （Hg）with DNA methylation as well as CHD are comprehensively investigated，for further researches.

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