Persistent organic pollutants and pregnancy complications

Abstract

We sought to investigate the relationship between maternal preconception exposures to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and pregnancy complications, gestational diabetes (GDM) and gestational hypertension. Data from 258 (51%) women with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) confirmed pregnancies reaching ≥24weeks gestation, from a prospective cohort of 501 couples who discontinued contraception to attempt pregnancy, were analyzed. Preconception concentrations of 9 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and 10 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were quantified in serum. In separate multiple logistic regression models of self-reported physician diagnosed outcomes: GDM (11%) and gestational hypertension (10%), chemicals were natural log-transformed and rescaled by their standard deviation (SD). Models were adjusted for serum lipids, and then adjusted for age, body mass index, race, and smoking. Models were additionally adjusted for the sum of the remaining POPs in each chemical class. Women's serum concentration of PBDE congener 153 (PBDE-153) was positively associated with an increased odds of GDM per SD increase in log-transformed concentration, for unadjusted (OR=1.36, 95%CI: 1.02-1.81), a priori adjusted (OR=1.38, 95% CI: 1.03-1.86) and with the sum of remaining PBDEs (OR=1.79, 95% CI: 1.18, 2.74) models. Our findings suggest that at environmentally relevant concentrations, maternal exposure to POPs prior to conception may contribute to increased chance of developing GDM.

Urinary phthalate and phthalate alternative metabolites and isoprostane among couples undergoing fertility treatment

“…Although sperm has been traditionally considered vehicle only for the delivery of the paternal genome upon fertilization, compelling animal data demonstrate that paternal nutritional manipulation during adulthood can alter sperm epigenetic marks (Lambrot et al, 2013; Wei et al, 2014) and noncoding RNA (Sharma et al, 2016) that may affect offspring health and development. Despite the lack of mechanistic data, a growing body of human observational studies show that preconception exposures may be associated with adverse reproductive health (Bae et al, 2015; Bloom et al, 2015a; Murphy et al, 2010; Robledo et al, 2015; Smarr et al, 2016). Most notably are results indicating that male partner urinary concentrations of MMP, MnBP, and MBzP were associated with a 20% reduction in fecundity as measured by time-to-pregnancy in U.S. couples (Buck Louis et al, 2014).…”

Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Environmental Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Women’s Reproductive Health Outcomes: Epidemiological Examples Across the Life Course

“…One study used a nested case-control design to evaluate the PBDEs at the time of delivery and risk of preterm birth finding that higher concentrations of PBDE-47 were associated with an increased odds of preterm birth [111]. Another study evaluated pre-conception PBDEs in a prospective cohort study examining several outcomes, including GDM and gestational hypertension [112]. They found associations between PBDE-153 and an increased odds of GDM, but did not find an association with any PBDEs and gestational hypertension.…”

Female mice exposed to low-doses of dioxin during pregnancy and lactation have increased susceptibility to diet-induced obesity and diabetes

“…A positive association between GDM and self-reported pesticide exposure during pregnancy has also been reported [37]. However, other studies showed no association between GDM incidence and serum organochloride pesticides [32,33] or PCB levels [33,34]. Inconsistencies between human studies can result from the inability to control certain confounding variables, such as varying POP concentrations between participants, differences in timing of POP measurements, method of diabetes diagnosis, and genetics and environmental factors.…”

“…Thus far, epidemiological studies investigating the association between POP exposure during pregnancy and diabetes incidence have been inconsistent. Some studies have shown a positive association between GDM and serum POP levels, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) [29][30][31], polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) [30], and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) [30,32]. A positive association between GDM and self-reported pesticide exposure during pregnancy has also been reported [37].…”

“…Failure to compensate for these changes can lead to hyperglycemia, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), and long-term metabolic complications in the mothers and their offspring [28]. The limited number of epidemiological studies that assessed the association between chronic POP exposure and GDM have reported inconsistent results, with some studies showing a positive association between POP serum levels and GDM [29][30][31][32] and others showing no association [32][33][34]. In addition, these are all cross-sectional studies and therefore do not provide information about the timing of events and cannot rule out the possibility of reverse causality (i.e.…”