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Green space exposure during pregnancy and umbilical cord blood levels of liver enzymes

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Abstract

Evidence has suggested better pregnancy outcomes due to exposure to greenspace; however, the studies on such an association with the level of liver enzymes in the cord blood are still nonexistent. Hence, this study investigated the relationship between exposure to greenspace during the entire pregnancy and gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels in cord blood samples. We selected 150 pregnant women from our pregnancy cohort in Sabzevar, Iran (2018). Greenspace exposure was characterized based on (i) residential distance to green space, (ii) time spent in public/private green spaces, (iii) residential surrounding greenspace, (iv) visual access to greenspace, and (v) number of indoor natural pot plants at home. We developed linear regression models to investigate the adjusted associations of greenspace exposure with enzyme levels. Each one interquartile range (IQR) increase in the residential surrounding greenspace (100 m buffer) was related to a reduction of −12.58 (U/L) (95% CI −22.86, −2.29), −3.35 (U/L) (95% CI −5.50, −1.20), and −0.57 (U/L) (95% CI −1.12, −0.02) in the levels of GGT, AST, and ALT, respectively. Moreover, a similar association was observed for the time the participants spent in green spaces. A decrease in the residential distance to large green spaces was related with lower cord blood levels of AST, ALT, and GGT. Having a window with greenspace view at home was significantly related to lower AST level. The results for the indoor plant pots were not conclusive. Our findings suggested an inverse relationship between greenspace exposure during pregnancy and cord blood levels of liver enzymes. Further studies in other settings and populations are needed to confirm our findings.

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The data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by Non-communicable Diseases Research Center, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences (Grant number: 95010). Payam Dadvand has been awarded a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2012-10995) by the Ministry of Innovation and Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Midwifery, School of Nursing, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran

    Saide Mehrabadi, Mina Ghalenovi & Nasim Sadat Pajohanfar

  2. Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Department of Environmental Health, School of Health, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran

    Mohammad Miri, Afishin Dovlatabadi & Elahe Hasannejad Estiri

  3. Pharmaceutical Sciences and Cosmetic Products Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

    Moslem Lari Najafi

  4. Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran

    Abolfazl Adli, Mina Abroudi & Malihe Sadat Bazghandi

  5. ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain

    Albert Ambrós, Lucia Alonso & Payam Dadvand

  6. Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain

    Albert Ambrós, Lucia Alonso & Payam Dadvand

  7. CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain

    Albert Ambrós, Lucia Alonso & Payam Dadvand

Authors
  1. Saide Mehrabadi
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  2. Mohammad Miri
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  3. Moslem Lari Najafi
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  4. Mina Ghalenovi
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  5. Abolfazl Adli
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  6. Nasim Sadat Pajohanfar
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  7. Albert Ambrós
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  8. Afishin Dovlatabadi
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  9. Elahe Hasannejad Estiri
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  10. Mina Abroudi
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  11. Lucia Alonso
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  12. Malihe Sadat Bazghandi
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  13. Payam Dadvand
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Contributions

SM: Data curation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing - original draft. M.M : Funding acquisition, Conceptualization, Methodology, Project administration, Writing - review & editing. MLN and MGh: Project administration, Writing - review & editing. AA, NSP and AA, AD, EHE, MA, LA and MSB: Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing - review & editing. PD: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing - review & editing. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript. The authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohammad Miri.

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Ethics approval

The study was approved by the Clinical Research Ethical Committee of the Sabzevar University of Medical Science (IR.MEDSAB.REC.1395.82).

Consent to participate

All the participants must have signed a consent form approved by the Clinical Research Ethical Committee (IR.MEDSAB.REC.1395.82) of the Sabzevar University of Medical Science before inclusion in our study.

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Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Responsible Editor: Lotfi Aleya

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Mehrabadi, S., Miri, M., Najafi, M.L. et al. Green space exposure during pregnancy and umbilical cord blood levels of liver enzymes. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 68432–68440 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20568-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20568-5

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