Prenatal Exposure to persistent organochlorine compounds and offspring arrthropromatry: A prospective study with 20 years of follow-up

摘要

Background: Animal studies have suggested that early life exposures to certain endocrine disruptors may interfere with pathways that regulate offspring later body weight. In humans these findings have mostly been explored with respect to persistent organochlorine compounds (POC) and weight gain early infancy and childhood. Aims:To examine the association between in utero exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides and offspring anthropometry at 20 years of age. Methods: A prospective cohort of 662 Danish pregnant women recruited in 1988-1989 with offspring follow-up in 2008-2009. PCBs (sum of congeners # 118,138,153,156,170,180), dichlorodiphenyl-dichloroethylene (DDE) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) were measured maternal serum from gestational week 30. Results: Maternal serum concentrations [median (interquartile range)] were 3.43 ng/mL (1.95) for sum of 6 PCBs, 0.54 ng/mL (0.28) for HCB and 2.46 ng/mL (2.2) for DDE. After adjustment for covariates, including serum lipids, parity, maternal socioeconomic status and pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), maternal serum PCB concentrations were positively associated (p for tend = 0.04) with female (n=344) offspring BMI at 20 years. Female offspring of mothers who were in the highest quartile of PCB concentration (≥4.9ng/mL) had on average 1.0kg/m2 higher BMI (95%CI: -0.1, 2.2) and 2.6 cm (95%CI: -0.7, 5.9) higher waist circumference compared to female offspring whose mothers were in the lowest quartile (≤1.1ng/mL). For female offspring, similar but more modest association were observed for HCB (p for trend = 0.07 for BMI), while no association was observed for DDE. No association was observed between maternal serum concentrations of PCB, HCB and DDE and male offspring anthropometry at 20 years (n=318). Conclusions: This long term follow-up study suggests that prenatal exposure to PCBs and HCB may be modestly associated with higher adiposity in female offspring at 20 years of age.