Maternal Concentrations of Perfluoroalkyl Substances and Fetal Markers of Metabolic Function and Birth Weight

Abstract

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are ubiquitous, persistent chemicals that have been widely used in the production of common household and consumer goods for their nonflammable, lipophobic, and hydrophobic properties. Inverse associations between maternal or umbilical cord blood concentrations of perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctanesulfonate and birth weight have been identified. This literature has primarily examined each PFAS individually without consideration of the potential influence of correlated exposures. Further, the association between PFAS exposures and indicators of metabolic function (i.e., leptin and adiponectin) has received limited attention. We examined associations between first-trimester maternal plasma PFAS concentrations and birth weight and cord blood concentrations of leptin and adiponectin using data on 1,705 mother-infant pairs from the Maternal Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) Study, a trans-Canada birth cohort study that recruited women between 2008 and 2011. Bayesian hierarchical models were used to quantify associations and calculate credible intervals. Maternal perfluorooctanoic acid concentrations were inversely associated with birth weight z score, though the null value was included in all credible intervals (log10 β = −0.10, 95% credible interval: −0.34, 0.13). All associations between maternal PFAS concentrations and cord blood adipocytokine concentrations were of small magnitude and centered around the null value. Follow-up in a cohort of children is required to determine how the observed associations manifest in childhood.

Maternal serum concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances and birth size in British boys

“…Outside of the ALSPAC cohort, our weakly inverse or null results are consistent with those reported in other epidemiologic studies of PFAS and birth size. The PFAS concentrations in this study are generally similar to levels reported in previous studies (Apelberg et al, 2007b;Ashley-Martin et al, 2017;Chen et al, 2012;Fei et al, 2007;Hamm et al, 2010;Manzano-Salgado et al, 2017;Meng et al, 2018;Minatoya et al, 2017;Sagiv et al, 2018;Shoaff et al, 2018;Starling et al, 2017;Whitworth et al, 2012;Woods et al, 2017), though PFNA is lowest in the present study. Studies from Japan (n = 168) (Minatoya et al, 2017), the United States (Maryland) (n = 299) (Apelberg et al, 2007b), Denmark (n = 1,400) (Fei et al, 2007), and Taiwan (n = 429) (Chen et al, 2012) have found evidence of inverse associations of PFOA and PFOS with birth size.…”

“…A third American study (Ohio) (n = 272) analyzed PFAS as a class using Bayesian Hierarchical Linear Models and found that for a 10-fold increase in chemical concentration, the mean difference in birth weight was −11 g for PFAS (Woods et al, 2017). Finally, as we observed in our study for PFOA, PFHxS, and PFNA, other studies have found some evidence of modestly inverse or null associations between PFAS and birth weight (Ashley-Martin et al, 2017;Hamm et al, 2010;Manzano-Salgado et al, 2017;Shoaff et al, 2018;Whitworth et al, 2012).…”

“…The epidemiological literature on prenatal PFAS exposure and birth size (birth weight, birth length, and head circumference) has been mixed, with some studies finding that higher concentrations are associated with reduced birth size (Apelberg et al, 2007b;Chen et al, 2012;Fei et al, 2007;Maisonet et al, 2012;Meng et al, 2018;Minatoya et al, 2017;Sagiv et al, 2018;Starling et al, 2017), while others observe largely null associations (Ashley-Martin et al, 2017;Hamm et al, 2010;Manzano-Salgado et al, 2017;Shoaff et al, 2018;Whitworth et al, 2012;Woods et al, 2017), with inconsistent results across PFAS chemicals. To date, studies of PFAS exposure and birth size have been conducted in American, Canadian, Danish, Norwegian, Spanish, Japanese, and Taiwanese populations.…”

“…To date, studies of PFAS exposure and birth size have been conducted in American, Canadian, Danish, Norwegian, Spanish, Japanese, and Taiwanese populations. While the aforementioned are examples of relevant studies, there are also published systematic reviews/meta-analyses on the topic (Bach et al, 2015;Johnson et al, 2014;Steenland et al, 2018). In particular, an updated meta-analysis with bias analysis of serum PFOA and birth weight concluded that human evidence provides only modest support for lower birth weight with higher maternal PFOA concentrations (Steenland et al, 2018).…”

Association of prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances with cord blood adipokines and birth size: The Hokkaido Study on environment and children's health

“…However, findings from animal data may not be applicable to humans. To our knowledge, there has been only a few prospective cohort studies that examined associations between early life exposure to PFASs and metabolic function such as adipokine levels (Halldorsson et al 2012;Fleisch et al 2016;Ashley-Martin et al 2017). One study found no evidence of an adverse effect of PFASs exposure on metabolic function in mid-childhood (Fleisch et al 2016) and contrary, the other study suggested that prenatal PFOA exposure significantly associated with leptin and adiponectin levels in female at age of 20 years (Halldorsson et al 2012).…”