Are Phthalate Exposure Related to Oxidative Stress in Children and Adolescents with Asthma? A Cumulative Risk Assessment Approach

Abstract

Childhood asthma has become one of the most common chronic diseases in children and adolescents. However, few case–control studies investigating the relationship between phthalate exposure and asthma in children and adolescents have been conducted, especially in Asia. Therefore, we assessed the potential associations between phthalate exposure and asthma among children and adolescents in Taiwan. Because various demographic and environmental variables may influence the incidence and prognosis of asthma, we performed a case–control study with propensity score matching. Out of 615 Childhood Environment and Allergic Diseases Study participants, we conditionally matched 41 children with clinically diagnosed asthma with 111 controls. We then analyzed 11 phthalate metabolites by using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. Compared with the control group, the median urinary phthalate levels for most phthalate metabolites in the case group were slightly increased, including monomethyl phthalate, mono-n-butyl phthalate, monobenzyl phthalate, monoethylhexyl phthalate, mono-(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate, mono-(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate, mono-(2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl) phthalate, and mono-(2-carboxymethylhexyl) phthalate. Hence, our results suggest that phthalate exposure may be associated with the development of asthma. In addition, prenatal environmental factors, such as active or passive smoking during pregnancy, may increase the risk of asthma.

Oxidative Stress and Inflammatory Biomarkers for Populations with Occupational Exposure to Nanomaterials: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Although being sensitive relative to the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ 74 , 75 ], it may be still not be the optimal technique for analysis of urinary samples and more new generations of mass spectrometers [ 76 , 77 ] should be applied to further confirm the results in urinary samples to avoid technique-derived deviations. More interestingly, there were published literatures that suggested urinary oxidative stress indicators were excellent biomarkers to identify persons exposed to toxic elements (diagnostic accuracy of 3-NOTyr = 0.753) [ 78 ] and predict the hazard effects [ 79 ]. The levels of urinary and circulating oxidative stress markers (e.g., 8-OHdG [ 32 ], MDA [ 80 ]) in occupationally exposed workers were also observed to be significantly correlated.…”

“…Which one (or which combination) [ 82 ] is the optimal biomarker remains under-investigated. These two issues need to be resolved by the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and multivariate regression analysis [ 78 , 79 , 81 , 82 ]. The reference ranges of significant oxidative stress and inflammatory biomarkers we identified also should be calculated to better explain the biomarker roles of them in different disease settings [ 74 , 75 , 83 , 84 ].…”

Exposure Characteristics and Cumulative Risk Assessment for Phthalates in Children Living near a Petrochemical Complex

“…For DEHP DI, the formula is represented by Equation (2), where UE is the urinary excretion of the measured total urinary DEHP metabolites per gram of creatinine [ 20 ]. …”

Characterizing the Contribution of Indoor Residential Phthalate and Phthalate Alternative Dust Concentrations to Internal Dose in the US General Population: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…The NHANES biomonitoring data incorporated into the formula represent the total phthalate and phthalate alternative dose in the general population from non-specific sources for adults (21 years and older) and children (3–5 years). The dose reconstruction formula below has previously been applied in the literature [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ].…”