Abstract
Telomere length (TL) is considered a marker of biological aging and lifetime health, and some epidemiological studies report that the environmental exposures may influence TL at birth. We aimed to investigate the associations between prenatal rare earth elements (REE) exposure and newborn TL. A total of 587 mother-newborn pairs were recruited during 2013 to 2015 in Wuhan, China. Maternal urinary concentrations of REE collected during three trimesters were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to measure relative cord blood TL. The trimester-specific associations between prenatal REE exposure and cord blood TL were evaluated using multiple informant models. Weighted quantile sum regression was used to estimate the mixture effect of urinary REE on cord blood TL. After adjustment for potential confounders, per doubling of urinary REE (Dy, Yb, Pr, Nd, and Tm) concentrations (μg/g creatinine) during the second trimester was respectively associated with 1.94% (95% CI 0.19%, 3.72%), 2.10% (95% CI 0.31%, 3.92%), 2.11% (95% CI 0.35%, 3.89%), 2.08% (95% CI 0.01%, 4.20%), and 1.38% (95% CI 0.09%, 2.70%) increase in cord blood TL. Furthermore, exposure to the mixture of REE during the second trimester was also significantly associated with increased cord blood TL (percent change 1.20%, 95% CI 0.30%, 2.11%). However, these associations were not statistically significant in the first and third trimesters. This study provides new evidence on the potential effect of prenatal REE exposure on the initial (newborn) setting of offspring’s telomere biology. Further epidemiological studies are warranted to confirm our findings.
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The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank all the study participants in this study and the staffs of the Wuhan Children’s Hospital (Wuhan Maternal and Child Healthcare Hospital).
Funding
This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82073660, 82003479) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M662646, 2020T130220).
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YJW, SQX, and LLS conceived the protocol. MYW, JNB, LLW, QL, CX, and ZQC contributed to data collection. YYL, MYW, and LLS contributed to analysis and interpretation of data. YYL wrote the original draft. YJW reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of the Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (No. S152), and the Wuhan Children’s Hospital (Wuhan Maternal and Child Healthcare Hospital) (No. 2016003). Individual written informed consent was obtained from all participating mothers at enrollment.
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Liu, Y., Song, L., Wu, M. et al. Association between rare earth element exposure during pregnancy and newborn telomere length. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 38751–38760 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24958-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24958-7