1
|
McGee G, Génard-Walton M, Williams PL, Korevaar TIM, Chavarro JE, Meeker JD, Braun JM, Broeren MA, Ford JB, Calafat AM, Souter I, Hauser R, Mínguez-Alarcón L. Associations of Maternal Urinary Concentrations of Phenols, Individually and as a Mixture, with Serum Biomarkers of Thyroid Function and Autoimmunity: Results from the EARTH Study. TOXICS 2023; 11:521. [PMID: 37368621 PMCID: PMC10302981 DOI: 10.3390/toxics11060521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2023] [Revised: 05/26/2023] [Accepted: 06/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023]
Abstract
The associations between urinary phenol concentrations and markers of thyroid function and autoimmunity among potentially susceptible subgroups, such as subfertile women, have been understudied, especially when considering chemical mixtures. We evaluated cross-sectional associations of urinary phenol concentrations, individually and as a mixture, with serum markers of thyroid function and autoimmunity. We included 339 women attending a fertility center who provided one spot urine and one blood sample at enrollment (2009-2015). We quantified four phenols in urine using isotope dilution high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, and biomarkers of thyroid function (thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free and total thyroxine (fT4, TT4), and triiodothyronine (fT3, TT3)), and autoimmunity (thyroid peroxidase (TPO) and thyroglobulin (Tg) antibodies (Ab)) in serum using electrochemoluminescence assays. We fit linear and additive models to investigate the association between urinary phenols-both individually and as a mixture-and serum thyroid function and autoimmunity, adjusted for confounders. As a sensitivity analysis, we also applied Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR) to investigate non-linear and non-additive interactions. Urinary bisphenol A was associated with thyroid function, in particular, fT3 (mean difference for a 1 log unit increase in concentration: -0.088; 95% CI [-0.151, -0.025]) and TT3 (-0.066; 95% CI [-0.112, -0.020]). Urinary methylparaben and triclosan were also associated with several thyroid hormones. The overall mixture was negatively associated with serum fT3 concentrations (mean difference comparing all four mixture components at their 75th vs. 25th percentiles: -0.19, 95% CI [-0.35, -0.03]). We found no evidence of non-linearity or interactions. These results add to the current literature on phenol exposures and thyroid function in women, suggesting that some phenols may alter the thyroid system.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Glen McGee
- Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada;
| | | | - Paige L. Williams
- Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA;
| | - T. I. M. Korevaar
- Department of Internal Medicine and Academic Center for Thyroid Diseases, Erasmus University Medical Center, 3015 GD Rotterdam, GE, The Netherlands;
| | - Jorge E. Chavarro
- Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA;
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - John D. Meeker
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA;
| | - Joseph M. Braun
- Department of Epidemiology, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA;
| | - Maarten A. Broeren
- Laboratory of Clinical Chemistry and Haematology, Máxima Medical Centre, 5631 BM Veldhoven, De Run, The Netherlands;
| | - Jennifer B. Ford
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA;
| | - Antonia M. Calafat
- National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA;
| | - Irene Souter
- Vincent Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; (I.S.); (R.H.)
| | - Russ Hauser
- Vincent Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; (I.S.); (R.H.)
- Departments of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Lidia Mínguez-Alarcón
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA;
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Zhang Y, Mustieles V, Williams PL, Souter I, Calafat AM, Demokritou M, Lee A, Vagios S, Hauser R, Messerlian C. Association of preconception mixtures of phenol and phthalate metabolites with birthweight among subfertile couples. Environ Epidemiol 2022; 6:e222. [PMID: 36249269 PMCID: PMC9555928 DOI: 10.1097/ee9.0000000000000222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2021] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Although parental preconception exposure to some phenols and phthalates have been associated with reduced birthweight, few studies have examined these chemicals as complex mixtures.
Collapse
|
3
|
Chung MK, Rappaport SM, Wheelock CE, Nguyen VK, van der Meer TP, Miller GW, Vermeulen R, Patel CJ. Utilizing a Biology-Driven Approach to Map the Exposome in Health and Disease: An Essential Investment to Drive the Next Generation of Environmental Discovery. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2021; 129:85001. [PMID: 34435882 PMCID: PMC8388254 DOI: 10.1289/ehp8327] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2020] [Revised: 03/28/2021] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent developments in technologies have offered opportunities to measure the exposome with unprecedented accuracy and scale. However, because most investigations have targeted only a few exposures at a time, it is hypothesized that the majority of the environmental determinants of chronic diseases remain unknown. OBJECTIVES We describe a functional exposome concept and explain how it can leverage existing bioassays and high-resolution mass spectrometry for exploratory study. We discuss how such an approach can address well-known barriers to interpret exposures and present a vision of next-generation exposomics. DISCUSSION The exposome is vast. Instead of trying to capture all exposures, we can reduce the complexity by measuring the functional exposome-the totality of the biologically active exposures relevant to disease development-through coupling biochemical receptor-binding assays with affinity purification-mass spectrometry. We claim the idea of capturing exposures with functional biomolecules opens new opportunities to solve critical problems in exposomics, including low-dose detection, unknown annotations, and complex mixtures of exposures. Although novel, biology-based measurement can make use of the existing data processing and bioinformatics pipelines. The functional exposome concept also complements conventional targeted and untargeted approaches for understanding exposure-disease relationships. CONCLUSIONS Although measurement technology has advanced, critical technological, analytical, and inferential barriers impede the detection of many environmental exposures relevant to chronic-disease etiology. Through biology-driven exposomics, it is possible to simultaneously scale up discovery of these causal environmental factors. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP8327.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ming Kei Chung
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Stephen M. Rappaport
- Program in Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Craig E. Wheelock
- Division of Physiological Chemistry 2, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Vy Kim Nguyen
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, Medical School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | - Thomas P. van der Meer
- Department of Endocrinology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Gary W. Miller
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
| | - Roel Vermeulen
- Utrecht University & Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Chirag J. Patel
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Zhang Y, Mustieles V, Williams PL, Wylie BJ, Souter I, Calafat AM, Demokritou M, Lee A, Vagios S, Hauser R, Messerlian C. Parental preconception exposure to phenol and phthalate mixtures and the risk of preterm birth. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2021; 151:106440. [PMID: 33640694 PMCID: PMC8488320 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106440] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2020] [Revised: 01/22/2021] [Accepted: 02/01/2021] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Parental preconception exposure to select phenols and phthalates was previously associated with increased risk of preterm birth in single chemical analyses. However, the joint effect of phenol and phthalate mixtures on preterm birth is unknown. METHODS We included 384 female and 211 male (203 couples) participants seeking infertility treatment in the Environment and Reproductive Health (EARTH) Study who gave birth to 384 singleton infants between 2005 and 2018. Mean preconception urinary concentrations of bisphenol A (BPA), parabens, and eleven phthalate biomarkers, including di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) metabolites, were examined. We used principal component analysis (PCA) with log-Poisson regression and Probit Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR) with hierarchical variable selection to examine maternal and paternal phenol and phthalate mixtures in relation to preterm birth. Couple-based BKMR model was fit to assess couples' joint mixtures in relation to preterm birth. RESULTS PCA identified the same four factors for maternal and paternal preconception mixtures. Each unit increase in PCA scores of maternal (adjusted Risk Ratio (aRR): 1.36, 95%CI: 1.00, 1.84) and paternal (aRR: 1.47, 95%CI: 0.90, 2.42) preconception DEHP-BPA factor was positively associated with preterm birth. Maternal and paternal BKMR models consistently presented the DEHP-BPA factor with the highest group Posterior Inclusion Probability (PIP). BKMR models further showed that maternal preconception BPA and mono(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate, and paternal preconception mono(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate were positively associated with preterm birth when the remaining mixture components were held at their median concentrations. Couple-based BKMR models showed a similar relative contribution of paternal (PIP: 61%) and maternal (PIP: 77%) preconception mixtures on preterm birth. We found a positive joint effect on preterm birth across increasing quantiles of couples' total mixture concentrations. CONCLUSION In this prospective cohort of subfertile couples, maternal BPA and DEHP, and paternal DEHP exposure before conception were positively associated with preterm birth. Both parental windows jointly contributed to the outcome. These results suggest that preterm birth may be a couple-based pregnancy outcome.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yu Zhang
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Vicente Mustieles
- University of Granada, Center for Biomedical Research (CIBM), Spain; Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria Ibs GRANADA, Spain; Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), 18100, Spain
| | - Paige L Williams
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Blair J Wylie
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Irene Souter
- Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Antonia M Calafat
- National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Melina Demokritou
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Alexandria Lee
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Stylianos Vagios
- Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Russ Hauser
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Carmen Messerlian
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Zhang Y, Lu Y, Ma H, Xu Q, Wu X. Combined Exposure to Multiple Endocrine Disruptors and Uterine Leiomyomata and Endometriosis in US Women. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2021; 12:726876. [PMID: 34489871 PMCID: PMC8418539 DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2021.726876] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2021] [Accepted: 08/02/2021] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Uterine leiomyomata (UL) and endometriosis (EM) are common gynecological diseases damaging the reproductive health of fertile women. Among all the potential factors, environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals are insufficiently addressed considering the multiple pollutants and mixture exposure. METHODS Women aged 20 to 54 years old in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001-2006, having a complete measurement of ten commonly exposed endocrine-disrupting chemicals (including urinary phthalate metabolites, equol, and whole blood heavy metals) and answered questions about UL and EM were included (N=1204). Multivariable logistic regression model, weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression, and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models were implemented to analyze the combined effect of chemicals on the overall association with UL and EM. RESULTS In single chemical analysis, equol (OR: 1.90, 95% CI: 1.11, 3.27) and mercury (Hg) (OR: 1.91, 95% CI: 1.14, 3.25) were found positively associated with UL in tertile 3 vs. tertile 1. In WQS regression and BKMR models, the significant positive association between WQS index and UL (OR: 2.54, 95% CI: 1.52, 4.29) was identified and the positive relationship between equol and Hg exposure and UL were further verified. Besides, the mixture evaluation models (WQS and BKMR) also found MEHP negatively associated with UL. Although none of the single chemicals in tertile 3 were significantly associated with EM, the WQS index had a marginally positive association with EM (OR: 2.01, 95% CI: 0.98, 4.15), and a significant positive association was identified in subanalysis with participants restricted to premenopausal women (OR: 2.18, 95% CI: 1.03, 4.70). MIBP and MBzP weighted high in model of EM and MEHP weighted the lowest. CONCLUSION Comparing results from these three statistical models, the associations between equol, Hg, and MEHP exposure with UL as well as the associations of MIBP, MBzP, and MEHP exposure with EM warrant further research.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yuqing Zhang
- Department of Women Health Care, Women’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Nanjing, China
| | - Yingying Lu
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Women’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Nanjing, China
| | - Huiyuan Ma
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Women’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Nanjing, China
| | - Qing Xu
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Women’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Nanjing, China
- *Correspondence: Xiaoli Wu, ; Qing Xu,
| | - Xiaoli Wu
- Department of Women Health Care, Women’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Nanjing, China
- *Correspondence: Xiaoli Wu, ; Qing Xu,
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Mínguez-Alarcón L, Bellavia A, Gaskins AJ, Chavarro JE, Ford JB, Souter I, Calafat AM, Hauser R, Williams PL. Paternal mixtures of urinary concentrations of phthalate metabolites, bisphenol A and parabens in relation to pregnancy outcomes among couples attending a fertility center. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2021; 146:106171. [PMID: 33069985 PMCID: PMC7775891 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2020.106171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2020] [Revised: 09/08/2020] [Accepted: 09/29/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Few epidemiologic studies have evaluated the impact of paternal environmental exposures, particularly as mixtures, on couples' pregnancy outcomes. OBJECTIVE We investigated whether mixtures of paternal urinary bisphenol A (BPA), paraben, and phthalates were associated with pregnancy outcomes among couples attending a fertility center. METHODS We included 210 couples undergoing 300 in vitro fertilization (IVF) between 2004 and 2017 in this prospective analysis. We quantified paternal urinary biomarker concentrations in one sample per cycle using isotope-dilution tandem mass spectrometry. We used principal component analysis (PCA) to identify correlations of biomarker concentrations and multivariable Cox proportional hazards models for discrete survival time to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for the associations between PCA-derived factor scores and probability of failing to achieve a live birth. Interactions were also included in the models to examine strength of associations over three vulnerable periods [embryo transfer to implantation, implantation to clinical pregnancy, and clinical pregnancy to live birth]. Models were adjusted for paternal and maternal ages and body mass indexes, urinary dilution (specific gravity) and year of collection, infertility diagnosis, and other PCA factor scores. Sensitivity analyses with further adjustment for maternal PCA factor scores were performed. RESULTS We identified three factors, representing di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) metabolites, BPA and non-DEHP metabolites, and parabens, accounting for 56%, 15% and 10%, respectively, of the total variance explained. An interquartile range (25th and 75th percentiles) increase in the DEHP-related factor score was associated with elevated probability of failing prior to live birth (HR = 1.41, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.81) and the association was stronger between implantation and clinical pregnancy as well as between clinical pregnancy and live birth compared to before implantation. The overall HRs of failure for the BPA/non-DEHP-related and paraben-related factor scores were HR = 1.24 (95% CI: 0.97, 1.59) and HR = 0.99 (95% CI: 0.80, 1.24). We found similar HRs when additionally adjusting for maternal PCA factor scores. CONCLUSION Paternal mixtures of urinary concentrations of DEHP metabolites were related to higher infertility treatment failure.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lidia Mínguez-Alarcón
- Departments of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States.
| | - Andrea Bellavia
- Departments of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States
| | - Audrey J Gaskins
- Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | - Jorge E Chavarro
- Departments of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States; Departments of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States
| | - Jennifer B Ford
- Departments of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States
| | - Irene Souter
- Division of Reproductive Medicine and IVF, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Antonia M Calafat
- National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | - Russ Hauser
- Departments of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States; Departments of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States; Vincent Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Paige L Williams
- Departments of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States; Departments of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Souter I, Bellavia A, Williams PL, Korevaar TIM, Meeker JD, Braun JM, de Poortere RA, Broeren MA, Ford JB, Calafat AM, Chavarro JE, Hauser R, Mínguez-Alarcón L. Urinary Concentrations of Phthalate Metabolite Mixtures in Relation to Serum Biomarkers of Thyroid Function and Autoimmunity among Women from a Fertility Center. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2020; 128:67007. [PMID: 32515996 PMCID: PMC7282564 DOI: 10.1289/ehp6740] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/07/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Although previous epidemiological studies have explored associations of phthalate metabolites with thyroid function, no studies to date have assessed associations of mixtures with thyroid function and autoimmunity among potentially susceptible subgroups such as subfertile women. OBJECTIVE We aimed to explore associations of mixtures of urinary phthalate metabolites with serum markers of thyroid function and autoimmunity. METHODS This cross-sectional study included 558 women attending a fertility center who provided one spot urine and one blood sample at enrollment (2005-2015). We quantified urinary concentrations of eight phthalate metabolites using mass spectrometry, and biomarkers of thyroid function [thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free and total thyroxine (fT4, TT4) and triiodothyronine (fT3, TT3), and autoimmunity [thyroid peroxidase and thyroglobulin antibodies (TPOAb and TgAb, respectively)] in serum using electrochemiluminescence assays. We applied principal component analysis (PCA) and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) to identify the main patterns of urinary phthalate metabolites. We used linear mixed models to assess the association between PCA-derived factor scores in quintiles and serum thyroid function and autoimmunity, adjusting for age, body mass index (BMI), specific gravity (SG), and, for the PCA, other factor scores. RESULTS We observed two factors using PCA, one representing the di(2-ethylhexyl) (DEHP) and another non-DEHP metabolites. Compared to women in the lowest quintile of the DEHP factor scores, women in the highest quintile had significantly lower serum concentrations of fT4, TT4, fT3, and TT3 [absolute difference: -0.62; 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.12, -0.01; p=0.04; absolute difference: -8.31; 95% CI: -13.8, -2.85; p=0.003; absolute difference: -0.37; 95% CI: 0.54, -0.19; p<0.0001; and absolute difference: -0.21; 95% CI: -0.32, -0.10; p=0.003, respectively]. Using BKMR, we observed that mono(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate (MEHHP) was the primary contributor to these negative associations. DEHP and non-DEHP factor scores were not associated with serum TSH, TgAb, or TPOAb. CONCLUSIONS Mixtures of urinary DEHP metabolites were inversely associated with serum biomarkers of thyroid function but not with autoimmunity, which were within normal ranges for healthy adult women. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6740.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Irene Souter
- Division of Reproductive Medicine and IVF, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Andrea Bellavia
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Paige L Williams
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - T I M Korevaar
- Department of Internal Medicine and Academic Center for Thyroid Diseases, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands
| | - John D Meeker
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | - Joseph M Braun
- Department of Epidemiology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
| | - Ralph A de Poortere
- Laboratory of Clinical Chemistry and Haematology, Máxima Medical Centre, Veldhoven, Netherlands
| | - Maarten A Broeren
- Laboratory of Clinical Chemistry and Haematology, Máxima Medical Centre, Veldhoven, Netherlands
| | - Jennifer B Ford
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Antonia M Calafat
- National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Jorge E Chavarro
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Russ Hauser
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Vincent Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Lidia Mínguez-Alarcón
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Kalloo G, Wellenius GA, McCandless L, Calafat AM, Sjodin A, Romano ME, Karagas MR, Chen A, Yolton K, Lanphear BP, Braun JM. Exposures to chemical mixtures during pregnancy and neonatal outcomes: The HOME study. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2020; 134:105219. [PMID: 31726361 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2019.105219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2019] [Revised: 09/19/2019] [Accepted: 09/23/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Exposure to mixtures of environmental chemicals are prevalent among pregnant women and may be associated with altered fetal growth and gestational age. To date, most research regarding environmental chemicals and neonatal outcomes has focused on the effect of individual agents. METHODS In a prospective cohort of 380 pregnant women from Cincinnati, OH (enrolled 2003-2006), we used biomarkers to estimate exposure to 43 phenols, phthalates, metals, organophosphate/pyrethroid/organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and environmental tobacco smoke. Using three approaches, we estimated covariate-adjusted associations of chemical mixtures or individual chemicals with gestational-age-specific birth weight z-scores, birth length, head circumference, and gestational age: k-means clustering, principal components (PC), and one-chemical-at-a-time regression. RESULTS We identified three chemical mixture profiles using k-means clustering. Women in cluster 1 had higher concentrations of most phenols, three phthalate metabolites, several metals, organophosphate/organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, and several PFAS than women in clusters 2 and 3. On average, infants born to women in clusters 1 (-1.2 cm; 95% CI: -1.9, -0.5) and 2 (-0.5 cm; 95% CI: -1.1, 0.1) had lower birth length than infants in cluster 3. Six PCs explained 50% of the variance in biomarker concentrations and biomarkers with similar chemical structures or from shared commercial/industrial settings loaded onto commons PCs. Each standard deviation increase in PC 1 (organochlorine pesticides, some phenols) and PC 6 (cadmium, bisphenol A) was associated with 0.2 cm (95% CI: -0.4, 0.0) and 0.1 cm (95% CI: -0.4, 0.1) lower birth length, respectively. Organochlorine compounds, parabens, and cadmium were inversely associated with birth length in the one-chemical-at-a-time analysis. Cluster membership, PC scores, and individual chemicals were not associated with other birth outcomes. CONCLUSION All three methods of characterizing multiple chemical exposures in this cohort identified inverse associations of select organochlorine compounds, phenols, and cadmium with birth length, but not other neonatal outcomes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Geetika Kalloo
- Department of Epidemiology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
| | | | | | | | - Andreas Sjodin
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Megan E Romano
- Department of Epidemiology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | | | - Aimin Chen
- Department of Environmental Health, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Kimberly Yolton
- Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Bruce P Lanphear
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada; Child and Family Research Institute, BC Children's and Women's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Joseph M Braun
- Department of Epidemiology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Mínguez-Alarcón L, Messerlian C, Bellavia A, Gaskins AJ, Chiu YH, Ford JB, Azevedo AR, Petrozza JC, Calafat AM, Hauser R, Williams PL. Urinary concentrations of bisphenol A, parabens and phthalate metabolite mixtures in relation to reproductive success among women undergoing in vitro fertilization. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2019; 126:355-362. [PMID: 30826614 PMCID: PMC6469504 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2019.02.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2018] [Revised: 02/04/2019] [Accepted: 02/10/2019] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND We have previously investigated whether urinary concentrations of bisphenol A (BPA), parabens, and phthalate metabolites were individually associated with reproductive outcomes among women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. However, humans are typically exposed to many man-made chemicals simultaneously. Thus, investigating one chemical at a time may not represent the effect of mixtures. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether urinary concentrations of BPA, parabens, and phthalate metabolite mixtures are associated with reproductive outcomes among women undergoing IVF. METHODS This prospective cohort study included 420 women contributing 648 IVF cycles who provided up to two urine samples per cycle prior to oocyte retrieval (N = 1145) between 2006 and 2017 at the Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center, and had available urine biomarker data. Urinary concentrations of BPA, parabens, and phthalate metabolites were quantified using isotope-dilution tandem mass spectrometry. Intermediate and clinical end-points of IVF treatments were abstracted from electronic medical records. Principal component analysis (PCA) and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) were used to identify main patterns of BPA, parabens, and phthalate metabolites concentrations. We used generalized linear mixed models to evaluate the association between PCA-derived factor scores, in quartiles, and IVF outcomes, using random intercepts to account for multiple IVF cycles and adjusting for known confounders. Because of temporal trends in exposure, we conducted a sensitivity analysis restricted to women who underwent IVF cycles in the earlier years of study (2006-2012). RESULTS Urinary concentrations of BPA, parabens, and most phthalate metabolites were significantly lower during the second half of the study period (2013-2017) than during the first half (2006-2012). None of the three factors derived from the PCA [di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), non-DEHP, and paraben] was associated with IVF outcomes in the main analyses. Similarly, BKRM analyses did not identify any associations of individual urinary concentrations of BPA, paraben and phthalate metabolites with IVF outcomes while accounting for correlation between exposures. However, in sensitivity analyses restricted to women who underwent IVF cycles from 2006 to 2012, where concentrations of most phthalates and phenols were higher, there were decreases in implantation, clinical pregnancy, and live birth across quartiles of the DEHP factor. Specifically, women in the highest quartile of the DEHP factor had, on average, lower probabilities of implantation (-22% p, trend = 0.08), clinical pregnancy (-24% p, trend = 0.14), and live birth (-38% p, trend = 0.06) compared to women in the lowest quartile. Among this group of women, BKMR results did not identify any single contributor driving the decreased probabilities of live birth within the DEHP factor. CONCLUSIONS We confirmed that women undergoing IVF are concurrently exposed to multiple endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). While we found no overall significant associations, we observed diminished pregnancy success with specific clusters of chemicals among women who underwent IVF cycles in earlier years of study, when urinary concentrations of these EDCs were higher.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lidia Mínguez-Alarcón
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States of America.
| | - Carmen Messerlian
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States of America
| | - Andrea Bellavia
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States of America
| | - Audrey J Gaskins
- Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States of America; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - Yu-Han Chiu
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States of America; Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States of America
| | - Jennifer B Ford
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States of America
| | - Alexandra R Azevedo
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States of America
| | - John C Petrozza
- Division of Reproductive Medicine and IVF, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - Antonia M Calafat
- National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States of America
| | - Russ Hauser
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States of America; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States of America; Vincent Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - Paige L Williams
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States of America; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Dixon HM, Armstrong G, Barton M, Bergmann AJ, Bondy M, Halbleib ML, Hamilton W, Haynes E, Herbstman J, Hoffman P, Jepson P, Kile ML, Kincl L, Laurienti PJ, North P, Paulik LB, Petrosino J, Points GL, Poutasse CM, Rohlman D, Scott RP, Smith B, Tidwell LG, Walker C, Waters KM, Anderson KA. Discovery of common chemical exposures across three continents using silicone wristbands. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:181836. [PMID: 30891293 PMCID: PMC6408398 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.181836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2018] [Accepted: 01/14/2019] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
To assess differences and trends in personal chemical exposure, volunteers from 14 communities in Africa (Senegal, South Africa), North America (United States (U.S.)) and South America (Peru) wore 262 silicone wristbands. We analysed wristband extracts for 1530 unique chemicals, resulting in 400 860 chemical data points. The number of chemical detections ranged from 4 to 43 per wristband, with 191 different chemicals detected, and 1339 chemicals were not detected in any wristband. No two wristbands had identical chemical detections. We detected 13 potential endocrine disrupting chemicals in over 50% of all wristbands and found 36 chemicals in common between chemicals detected in three geographical wristband groups (Africa, North America and South America). U.S. children (less than or equal to 11 years) had the highest percentage of flame retardant detections compared with all other participants. Wristbands worn in Texas post-Hurricane Harvey had the highest mean number of chemical detections (28) compared with other study locations (10-25). Consumer product-related chemicals and phthalates were a high percentage of chemical detections across all study locations (36-53% and 18-42%, respectively). Chemical exposures varied among individuals; however, many individuals were exposed to similar chemical mixtures. Our exploratory investigation uncovered personal chemical exposure trends that can help prioritize certain mixtures and chemical classes for future studies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Holly M. Dixon
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Georgina Armstrong
- Department of Medicine, Section of Epidemiology and Population Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Michael Barton
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Alan J. Bergmann
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Melissa Bondy
- Department of Medicine, Section of Epidemiology and Population Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Mary L. Halbleib
- Department of Crop and Soil Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Winifred Hamilton
- Department of Medicine, Environmental Health Section, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Erin Haynes
- College of Medicine, Department of Environmental Health, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Julie Herbstman
- Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Peter Hoffman
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Paul Jepson
- Integrated Plant Protection Center, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Molly L. Kile
- College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Laurel Kincl
- College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Paul J. Laurienti
- Department of Radiology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
| | - Paula North
- Department of Pathology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA
| | - L. Blair Paulik
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Joe Petrosino
- Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Gary L. Points
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Carolyn M. Poutasse
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Diana Rohlman
- College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Richard P. Scott
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Brian Smith
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Lane G. Tidwell
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Cheryl Walker
- Department of Medicine, Center for Precision Environmental Health, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Katrina M. Waters
- Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
| | - Kim A. Anderson
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Wang X, Mukherjee B, Park SK. Associations of cumulative exposure to heavy metal mixtures with obesity and its comorbidities among U.S. adults in NHANES 2003-2014. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2018; 121:683-694. [PMID: 30316184 PMCID: PMC6268112 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.09.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 180] [Impact Index Per Article: 30.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2018] [Revised: 08/27/2018] [Accepted: 09/22/2018] [Indexed: 05/18/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Some heavy metals (e.g., arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury) have been associated with obesity and obesity comorbidities. The analytical approach for those associations has typically focused on individual metals. There is a growing interest in evaluating the health effects of cumulative exposure to metal mixtures. OBJECTIVES We utilized our Environmental Risk Score (ERS), a summary measure to examine the risk of exposure to multi-pollutants in epidemiologic research, to evaluate the associations of cumulative exposure to a mixture of correlated heavy metals with obesity and its comorbidities including hypertension, and type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) while accounting for high degree correlations and interactions among metal mixtures components. METHODS We examined blood and urinary markers of 18 heavy metals among 9537 adults in NHANES 2003-2014. We randomly split data into a training set for the construction of ERS (n = 6675) and a testing set for the evaluation of its statistical performance (n = 2862). ERS of heavy metal mixtures was computed for waist circumference using adaptive elastic-net (AENET) with 189 predictors including 18 main effects, 18 squared terms, and 153 pairwise interactions of heavy metals. Regression analyses with complex survey designs were performed to assess the associations of ERS with other obesity measures, hypertension and T2DM. RESULTS 7 main effects (blood lead, blood cadmium, blood mercury, and urinary markers of monomethylarsonic acid (MMA), barium, mercury and thallium), 4 squared terms (blood cadmium, urinary cadmium, urinary antimony and urinary tungsten), and 7 pairwise interactions (blood lead & urinary cadmium, blood lead & urinary MMA, blood lead & urinary uranium, urinary cadmium & urinary MMA, urinary dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) & urinary tungsten, urinary MMA & urinary cobalt, and urinary lead & urinary antimony) were selected by AENET for construction of ERS of waist circumference-related metal mixtures. An increase in ERS from 10th percentile to 90th percentile in the overall study population was significantly associated with 4.50 kg/m2 (95% CI: 4.06, 4.94) higher BMI, 4.16 mm (95% CI: 3.56, 4.76) higher skinfold thickness, and 4.11 kg (95% CI: 0.83, 7.40) higher total body fat, independent of age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, smoking status, physical activity and NHANES cycle (Ps < 0.05). Significant associations of ERS with both hypertension and T2DM were also observed (Ps < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Our study suggests that cumulative exposure to heavy metals as mixtures is associated with obesity and its related chronic conditions such as hypertension and T2DM. Additional research is needed to confirm these findings in longitudinal settings.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xin Wang
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America
| | - Bhramar Mukherjee
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America
| | - Sung Kyun Park
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America; Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America.
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Birnbaum LS. How Did I Ever Get Here? The 2018 Mildred S. Christian Award Winner. Int J Toxicol 2018; 37:272-275. [PMID: 30016916 DOI: 10.1177/1091581818781316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Linda S Birnbaum
- 1 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Dixon HM, Scott RP, Holmes D, Calero L, Kincl LD, Waters KM, Camann DE, Calafat AM, Herbstman JB, Anderson KA. Silicone wristbands compared with traditional polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure assessment methods. Anal Bioanal Chem 2018; 410:3059-3071. [PMID: 29607448 PMCID: PMC5910488 DOI: 10.1007/s00216-018-0992-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2017] [Revised: 01/31/2018] [Accepted: 03/01/2018] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Currently there is a lack of inexpensive, easy-to-use technology to evaluate human exposure to environmental chemicals, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This is the first study in which silicone wristbands were deployed alongside two traditional personal PAH exposure assessment methods: active air monitoring with samplers (i.e., polyurethane foam (PUF) and filter) housed in backpacks, and biological sampling with urine. We demonstrate that wristbands worn for 48 h in a non-occupational setting recover semivolatile PAHs, and we compare levels of PAHs in wristbands to PAHs in PUFs-filters and to hydroxy-PAH (OH-PAH) biomarkers in urine. We deployed all samplers simultaneously for 48 h on 22 pregnant women in an established urban birth cohort. Each woman provided one spot urine sample at the end of the 48-h period. Wristbands recovered PAHs with similar detection frequencies to PUFs-filters. Of the 62 PAHs tested for in the 22 wristbands, 51 PAHs were detected in at least one wristband. In this cohort of pregnant women, we found more significant correlations between OH-PAHs and PAHs in wristbands than between OH-PAHs and PAHs in PUFs-filters. Only two comparisons between PAHs in PUFs-filters and OH-PAHs correlated significantly (rs = 0.53 and p = 0.01; rs = 0.44 and p = 0.04), whereas six comparisons between PAHs in wristbands and OH-PAHs correlated significantly (rs = 0.44 to 0.76 and p = 0.04 to <0.0001). These results support the utility of wristbands as a biologically relevant exposure assessment tool which can be easily integrated into environmental health studies. PAHs detected in samples collected from urban pregnant women ![]()
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Holly M Dixon
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, 1007 Agricultural and Life Sciences Building, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA
| | - Richard P Scott
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, 1007 Agricultural and Life Sciences Building, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA
| | - Darrell Holmes
- Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, New York, NY, 10032, USA
| | - Lehyla Calero
- Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, New York, NY, 10032, USA
| | - Laurel D Kincl
- College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Oregon State University, 160 SW 26th St, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA
| | - Katrina M Waters
- Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999, Richland, WA, 99352, USA
| | - David E Camann
- Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division, Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, TX, 78228-0510, USA
| | - Antonia M Calafat
- Division of Laboratory Sciences, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA, 30333, USA
| | - Julie B Herbstman
- Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, New York, NY, 10032, USA
| | - Kim A Anderson
- Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program, Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, 1007 Agricultural and Life Sciences Building, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Chiu YH, Bellavia A, James-Todd T, Correia KF, Valeri L, Messerlian C, Ford JB, Mínguez-Alarcón L, Calafat AM, Hauser R, Williams PL. Evaluating effects of prenatal exposure to phthalate mixtures on birth weight: A comparison of three statistical approaches. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2018; 113:231-239. [PMID: 29453090 PMCID: PMC5866233 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.02.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 77] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2017] [Revised: 02/05/2018] [Accepted: 02/05/2018] [Indexed: 05/18/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES We applied three statistical approaches for evaluating associations between prenatal urinary concentrations of a mixture of phthalate metabolites and birth weight. METHODS We included 300 women who provided 732 urine samples during pregnancy and delivered a singleton infant. We measured urinary concentrations of metabolites of di(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate, di-isobutyl-, di-n-butyl-, butylbenzyl-, and diethyl phthalates. We applied 1) linear regressions; 2) classification methods [principal component analysis (PCA) and structural equation models (SEM)]; and 3) Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR), to evaluate associations between phthalate metabolite mixtures and birth weight adjusting for potential confounders. Data were presented as mean differences (95% CI) in birth weight (grams) as each phthalate increased from the 10th to the 90th percentile. RESULTS When analyzing individual phthalate metabolites using linear regressions, each metabolite demonstrated a modest inverse association with birth weight [from -93 (-206, 21) to -49 (-164, 65)]. When simultaneously including all metabolites in a multivariable model, inflation of the estimates and standard errors were noted. PCA identified two principal components, both inversely associated with birth weight [-23 (-68, 22), -27 (-71, 17), respectively]. These inverse associations were confirmed when applying SEM. BKMR further identified that monoethyl and mono(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and phthalate concentrations were linearly related to lower birth weight [-51(-164, 63) and -122 (-311, 67), respectively], and suggested no evidence of interaction between metabolites. CONCLUSIONS While none of the methods produced significant results, we demonstrated the potential issues arising using linear regression models in the context of correlated exposures. Among the other selected approaches, classification techniques identified common sources of exposures with implications for interventions, while BKMR further identified specific contributions of individual metabolites.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yu-Han Chiu
- Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
| | - Andrea Bellavia
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Tamarra James-Todd
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Katharine F Correia
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Linda Valeri
- Laboratory for Psychiatric Biostatistics, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA 02478, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Carmen Messerlian
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Jennifer B Ford
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Lidia Mínguez-Alarcón
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Antonia M Calafat
- National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
| | - Russ Hauser
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Vincent Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Paige L Williams
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Abstract
I would certainly never have predicted that I would become the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Toxicology Program (NTP) when I was a Jewish girl growing up in Teaneck, New Jersey. My family stressed the importance of education. Yet for a girl there were many not-so-subtle suggestions that the appropriate careers were in teaching or nursing, and the most important thing was to be a wife and mother. Well, I can't disagree with the latter, although I would have to add grandmother to that list of achievements. My parents were both college graduates, but my mom only taught high school English for one year before leaving the field to start our family. My dad returned from World War II and joined his brother in accounting. After my first sister was born, my father joined my mother's family jewelry business and helped to open a second retail store. My mother helped my dad out during the busy times—Christmas and wedding season—but otherwise focused on our growing family of three girls and one boy. This became increasingly challenging when it became clear that my little brother was severely retarded and would require extra care.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Linda S Birnbaum
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709;
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Abstract
Environmental exposures have a significant influence on the chronic health conditions plaguing children and adults. Although the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) paradigm historically has focused on nutrition, an expanding body of research specifically communicates the effects of chemical exposures on early-life development and the propagation of non-communicable disease across the lifespan. This paper provides an overview of 20 years of research efforts aimed at identifying critical windows of susceptibility to environmental exposures and the signaling changes and epigenetic influences associated with disease progression. DOHaD grants funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in 1991, 2001 and 2011 are identified by grant-analysis software, and each portfolio is analyzed for exposures, disease endpoints, windows of exposure, study design and impact on the field based on publication data. Results show that the 1991 and 2001 portfolios comprised metals, PCBs and air pollutants; however, by 2011, the portfolio has evolved to include or expand the variety of endocrine disruptors, pesticides/persistent organic pollutants and metals. An assortment of brain-health endpoints is most targeted across the portfolios, whereas reproduction and cancer increase steadily over the same time period, and new endpoints like obesity are introduced by 2011. With mounting evidence connecting early-life exposures to later-life disease, we conclude that it is critical to expand the original DOHaD concept to include environmental chemical exposures, and to continue a research agenda that emphasizes defining sensitive windows of exposure and the mechanisms that cause disease.
Collapse
|
17
|
Juarez PD, Matthews-Juarez P, Hood DB, Im W, Levine RS, Kilbourne BJ, Langston MA, Al-Hamdan MZ, Crosson WL, Estes MG, Estes SM, Agboto VK, Robinson P, Wilson S, Lichtveld MY. The public health exposome: a population-based, exposure science approach to health disparities research. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2014; 11:12866-95. [PMID: 25514145 PMCID: PMC4276651 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph111212866] [Citation(s) in RCA: 107] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2014] [Revised: 11/12/2014] [Accepted: 11/27/2014] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The lack of progress in reducing health disparities suggests that new approaches are needed if we are to achieve meaningful, equitable, and lasting reductions. Current scientific paradigms do not adequately capture the complexity of the relationships between environment, personal health and population level disparities. The public health exposome is presented as a universal exposure tracking framework for integrating complex relationships between exogenous and endogenous exposures across the lifespan from conception to death. It uses a social-ecological framework that builds on the exposome paradigm for conceptualizing how exogenous exposures "get under the skin". The public health exposome approach has led our team to develop a taxonomy and bioinformatics infrastructure to integrate health outcomes data with thousands of sources of exogenous exposure, organized in four broad domains: natural, built, social, and policy environments. With the input of a transdisciplinary team, we have borrowed and applied the methods, tools and terms from various disciplines to measure the effects of environmental exposures on personal and population health outcomes and disparities, many of which may not manifest until many years later. As is customary with a paradigm shift, this approach has far reaching implications for research methods and design, analytics, community engagement strategies, and research training.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Paul D Juarez
- Research Center on Health Disparities, Equity, and the Exposome, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 66 N. Pauline, Memphis, TN 38105, USA.
| | - Patricia Matthews-Juarez
- Research Center on Health Disparities, Equity, and the Exposome, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 66 N. Pauline, Memphis, TN 38105, USA.
| | - Darryl B Hood
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, College of Public Health, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
| | - Wansoo Im
- Vertices, Inc., 317 George Street 411, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
| | - Robert S Levine
- Department of Family & Community Medicine, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA.
| | - Barbara J Kilbourne
- Department of Sociology, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN 37209, USA.
| | - Michael A Langston
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
| | - Mohammad Z Al-Hamdan
- National Space Science and Technology Center, Universities Space Research Association, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA.
| | - William L Crosson
- National Space Science and Technology Center, Universities Space Research Association, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA.
| | - Maurice G Estes
- National Space Science and Technology Center, University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA.
| | - Sue M Estes
- National Space Science and Technology Center, Universities Space Research Association, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA.
| | - Vincent K Agboto
- Department of Family & Community Medicine, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA.
| | - Paul Robinson
- Department of Ophthalmology, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA.
| | - Sacoby Wilson
- Research Center on Health Disparities, Equity, and the Exposome, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 66 N. Pauline, Memphis, TN 38105, USA.
| | - Maureen Y Lichtveld
- Research Center on Health Disparities, Equity, and the Exposome, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 66 N. Pauline, Memphis, TN 38105, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Humans are routinely exposed to multiple chemicals simultaneously or sequentially. There is evidence that the toxicity of individual chemicals may depend on the presence of other chemicals. Studies on chemical mixtures are limited, however, because of the lack of sufficient exposure data, limited statistical power, and difficulty in the interpretation of multidimensional interactions. This review summarizes the recent literature examining chemical mixtures and pediatric health outcomes, with an emphasis on metal mixtures. RECENT FINDINGS Several studies report significant interactions between metals in relation to pediatric health outcomes. Two prospective studies found interactive effects of early-life lead and manganese exposures on cognition. In two different cohorts, interactions between lead and cadmium exposures were reported on reproductive hormone levels and on neurodevelopment. Effects of lead exposure on impulsive behavior and cognition were modified by mercury exposure in studies from Canada and Denmark. However, there is little consistency related to exposure indicators and statistical approaches for evaluating interaction. SUMMARY Several studies suggest that metals interact to cause health effects that are different from exposure to each metal alone. Despite the nearly infinite number of possible chemical combinations, mixtures research represents real-life exposure scenarios and warrants more attention, particularly in the context of uniquely vulnerable children.
Collapse
|
19
|
Zhao B. Perspectives of the development strategies for a future toxicity testing system in China: challenges and opportunities. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2013; 121:A264-A265. [PMID: 24004515 PMCID: PMC3764094 DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1307303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
|
20
|
Schug TT, Johnson AF, Balshaw DM, Garantziotis S, Walker NJ, Weis C, Nadadur SS, Birnbaum LS. ONE Nano: NIEHS's strategic initiative on the health and safety effects of engineered nanomaterials. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2013; 121:410-414. [PMID: 23407114 PMCID: PMC3620765 DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1206091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2012] [Accepted: 02/07/2013] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The past decade has seen tremendous expansion in the production and application of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). The unique properties that make ENMs useful in the marketplace also make their interactions with biological systems difficult to anticipate and critically important to explore. Currently, little is known about the health effects of human exposure to these materials. OBJECTIVES As part of its role in supporting the National Nanotechnology Initiative, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has developed an integrated, strategic research program-"ONE Nano"-to increase our fundamental understanding of how ENMs interact with living systems, to develop predictive models for quantifying ENM exposure and assessing ENM health impacts, and to guide the design of second-generation ENMs to minimize adverse health effects. DISCUSSION The NIEHS's research investments in ENM health and safety include extramural grants and grantee consortia, intramural research activities, and toxicological studies being conducted by the National Toxicology Program (NTP). These efforts have enhanced collaboration within the nanotechnology research community and produced toxicological profiles for selected ENMs, as well as improved methods and protocols for conducting in vitro and in vivo studies to assess ENM health effects. CONCLUSION By drawing upon the strengths of the NIEHS's intramural, extramural, and NTP programs and establishing productive partnerships with other institutes and agencies across the federal government, the NIEHS's strategic ONE Nano program is working toward new advances to improve our understanding of the health impacts of engineered nanomaterials and support the goals of the National Nanotechnology Initiative.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Thaddeus T Schug
- Cellular, Organs and Systems Pathobiology Branch, Division of Extramural Research and Training, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27560, USA.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
21
|
Carlin DJ, Rider CV, Woychik R, Birnbaum LS. Unraveling the health effects of environmental mixtures: an NIEHS priority. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2013; 121:A6-8. [PMID: 23409283 PMCID: PMC3553446 DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1206182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 125] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
|