Levels of Heavy Metals and Trace Elements in Umbilical Cord Blood and the Risk of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes: a Population-Based Study

Abstract

To better understand the relationship between prenatal exposure to heavy metals and trace elements and the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, we investigated the status of heavy metals and trace elements level in a Chinese population by collecting umbilical cord blood. Umbilical cord blood heavy metals and trace elements concentrations were determined by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. No differences with statistical significance in the median arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), strontium (Sr), thallium (Tl), vanadium (V), and zinc (Zn) concentrations were observed between the adverse pregnancy outcome group and the reference group. Titanium (Ti) and antimony (Sb) were found at higher levels with statistical significance in the cord blood samples with adverse pregnancy group when compared to the ones in the reference group. The association between Ti levels and the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes remained significant after adjusting for potential confounding factors, including newborn weight. These results indicated that environmental exposure to Ti may increase the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes in Chinese women without occupational exposure.

Urinary levels of trace elements among primary school-aged children from Italy: The contribution of smoking habits of family members

“…In the same way, metalinduced oxidative stress seems to play an important role in the etiology of other chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, neurological disorders, etc (Jomova and Valko, 2011). Furthermore, accumulating evidence provides correlations between the exposure to trace elements and various adverse effects, such as those recently found for Ti, Cu, Cd, Rb and altered heart rate variability (Feng et al, 2015), for Cs and Sb and high blood pressure (Shiue and Hristova, 2014), for Ti and Sb and the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes (Zheng et al, 2014), and for Cd and Mn and cognition and behavior in childhood (Sanders et al, 2015). Additional evidences of detrimental effects for human health, albeit more limited and recovered in occupational scenarios or in very polluted areas, were found also for Ga (Chen, 2007), Li, B, and Sr (Usuda et al, 2007).…”

“…However, the results show higher urinary levels of most of the studied compounds in children exposed to ETS compared to unexposed, with the exception of V and Pb. Several adverse effects for human health have been related to the exposure to all of the monitored trace elements (Chen, 2007;Feng et al, 2015;Jomova and Valko, 2011;Lee et al, 2012;Sanders et al, 2015;Shiue and Hristova, 2014;Usuda et al, 2007;Zheng et al, 2014). Scientific evidence of these effects has grown considerably over the years, and more and new findings continue to emerge from the researches in this field.…”

Effects of Environmental Exposures on Fetal and Childhood Growth Trajectories

“…However, some studies did not find any relationship between Cd levels in maternal or cord blood and size at birth. 71–78 There are currently no epidemiologic studies that have evaluated the association between Cd exposure during the early pregnancy period and fetal development and birth outcomes.…”

“…Recent studies of arsenic (As) and pregnancy outcomes did not find an association between prenatal As exposure and adverse pregnancy outcomes, 78,95 while three studies conducted in Bangladesh where higher levels of As were found in the drinking water reported an increased risk of adverse birth outcomes (Table 2). 96–98 One of the studies found that the influence of As on fetal growth appeared to be sex-dependent with an inverse association with fetal size in boys.…”

Maternal urinary cadmium concentrations in relation to preterm birth in the Healthy Baby Cohort Study in China

“…Cd pollution has become a major health concern in China owing to the industrial emissions and the mass consumption of plant-derived food such as rice which contained high levels of Cd transferred from soil (Du et al, 2013;Uraguchi and Fujiwara, 2012). However, few data are available on the effects of prenatal exposure to Cd on birth outcomes in Chinese populations (Hu et al, 2015;Lin et al, 2011;Sun et al, 2014;Zheng et al, 2014). Given this background, we took advantage of our large prospective mother-child cohort to assess the effects of maternal Cd exposure on birth outcomes in 5364 Chinese pregnant women.…”