Prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances

Abstract

Background Prenatal perfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) exposure has been associated with reduced birth weight and excess child adiposity, but the relationship between PFAS and early life growth is unknown. Objective To determine if prenatal PFAS exposure was associated with birth weight, body composition and growth until 2 years of age. Methods In a prospective cohort of women and their children from Cincinnati, OH, we quantified perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) in pregnant women’s serum. We used linear regression to estimate associations of PFAS with birth weight z-scores (n=345) and linear mixed models to estimate associations with repeated weight and length/height measurements (n=334) at ages 4 weeks and 1 and 2 years, after adjusting for sociodemographic, perinatal, nutritional, and environmental factors. Results We found non-significant inverse associations between PFAS and infant birth weight. For example, each log2 increase in PFOA was associated with a 0.03 standard deviation reduction in birth weight z-score (95% CI:−0.17, 0.10). Compared to associations with birth weight, we observed stronger associations between PFAS and child anthropometry from 4 weeks to 2 years. For instance, each log2 increase in PFOA was associated with a 0.12 standard deviation decrease in BMI z-score (95% CI: −0.25, 0.01). We did not observe any differences in growth rate associated with PFAS. Conclusion We observed inverse associations between prenatal serum PFAS concentrations and anthropometry until age 2 years. Prenatal serum PFAS concentrations were not associated with growth rate in the first 2 years of life.

Evaluation of Developmental Toxicity, Developmental Neurotoxicity, and Tissue Dose in Zebrafish Exposed to GenX and Other PFAS

“…A longitudinal study in Finnish children and adolescents showed that although serum levels of PFOS, PFOA, perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA) decreased over the study period, calculated body burdens generally remained constant and, in some cases, increased (Koponen et al 2018). In humans, PFAS exposure has been associated with reduced birth weight (Apelberg et al 2007;Fei et al 2007), although weak associations with low birth weight or conflicting data have also been reported (Manzano-Salgado et al 2017;Shoaff et al 2018;Whitworth et al 2012). In animal studies, early life stage exposure to PFOS or PFOA have been linked to developmental toxicity in chickens and mice (Jiang et al 2012;Tucker et al 2015), immunotoxicity in mice (reviewed by DeWitt et al 2009), and developmental (Huang et al 2010;Padilla et al 2012;Truong et al 2014) and reproductive toxicity in zebrafish (Jantzen et al 2017).…”

Prenatal Exposures to Perfluoroalkyl Acids and Associations with Markers of Adiposity and Plasma Lipids in Infancy: An Odense Child Cohort Study

“…Some PFAA have endocrine-disrupting abilities and may influence the fetal endocrine programing related to growth patterns and lipid metabolism (Buhrke et al 2013;Wolf et al 2012;Ye et al 2012;Yu et al 2009;Zhao et al 2011). Data from previous infancy studies investigating associations between PFAA concentrations and anthropometry differed in sample size, and anthropometric outcomes were obtained at different stages of infancy and from various sources (Table S1) (Alkhalawi et al 2016;Andersen et al 2010;Gyllenhammar et al 2018;Karlsen et al 2017;Maisonet et al 2012;Manzano-Salgado et al 2017;Shoaff et al 2018;Starling et al 2019). Three prospective studies suggested that increased maternal PFAA concentrations was linked to higher weight at 3 months of age (Gyllenhammar et al 2018), significantly increased percent fat mass at 5 months of age in boys (Starling et al 2019), and significantly higher weight gain z-scores [b = 0:13; (95% CI: 0.01, 0.26); with a doubling of PFOA] at 6 months of age in boys (Manzano-Salgado et al 2017).…”

“…Two studies demonstrated that higher maternal concentration of PFOS was associated in late infancy with higher BMI z-scores and overweight risk in Faroese children 18 months old (Karlsen et al 2017) and with increased weight in British girls 20 months old (Maisonet et al 2012). No significant association was demonstrated between PFAA and repeated pooled measurements of ponderal index (Alkhalawi et al 2016) during the first year of infancy, whereas there were indications of negative associations between PFOA and pooled BMI z-scores from 4 wk to 2 years of age (Shoaff et al 2018); however, during this period, the rate of change in anthropometry was not modified by PFAA (Shoaff et al 2018). In relation to lipid metabolism, PFOS and PFOA concentrations have been associated with hyperlipidemia in adults from the general population (Nelson et al 2010;Steenland et al 2009).…”

“…Moreover, prenatal PFAA concentrations could affect metabolic function in offspring girls and boys differently, and five studies analyzing sex-dimorphic anthropometry found significant associations for females only in three studies (Halldorsson et al 2012;Høyer et al 2015;Mora et al 2017) and for males only in two studies (Andersen et al 2010;Manzano-Salgado et al 2017). Five of the eight infancy studies investigated associations between PFAA exposure and repeated anthropometric measurements throughout infancy (Alkhalawi et al 2016;Andersen et al 2010;Gyllenhammar et al 2018;Maisonet et al 2012;Shoaff et al 2018), whereas others measured anthropometry only at a single time point during infancy (Karlsen et al 2017;Manzano-Salgado et al 2017;Starling et al 2019). Moreover, some studies were restricted to outcomes that were either self-reported (Andersen et al 2010) or obtained from medical records (Alkhalawi et al 2016;Gyllenhammar et al 2018;Manzano-Salgado et al 2017), whereas others collected data from regular clinical examinations (Karlsen et al 2017;Maisonet et al 2012;Shoaff et al 2018;Starling et al 2019).…”

“…Five of the eight infancy studies investigated associations between PFAA exposure and repeated anthropometric measurements throughout infancy (Alkhalawi et al 2016;Andersen et al 2010;Gyllenhammar et al 2018;Maisonet et al 2012;Shoaff et al 2018), whereas others measured anthropometry only at a single time point during infancy (Karlsen et al 2017;Manzano-Salgado et al 2017;Starling et al 2019). Moreover, some studies were restricted to outcomes that were either self-reported (Andersen et al 2010) or obtained from medical records (Alkhalawi et al 2016;Gyllenhammar et al 2018;Manzano-Salgado et al 2017), whereas others collected data from regular clinical examinations (Karlsen et al 2017;Maisonet et al 2012;Shoaff et al 2018;Starling et al 2019). In general, the PFAA studies during infancy were of a sample size <447 children (Alkhalawi et al 2016;Gyllenhammar et al 2018;Karlsen et al 2017;Maisonet et al 2012;Shoaff et al 2018;Starling et al 2019).…”