Full length article
Prenatal exposure to mixtures of phthalates and phenols and body mass index and blood pressure in Spanish preadolescents

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107527Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • We assessed effects of prenatal mixture of phthalates/phenols on BMI and BP at 11 years.

  • BP3, a sunscreen agent, was associated with higher BMI and diastolic BP.

  • BP3 effects were stronger in preadolescents who reached puberty onset.

  • No overall mixture effect was observed in none of the outcomes.

  • In girls, the overall mixture trended with higher BMI and lower systolic BP.

Abstract

Background

Pregnant women are simultaneously exposed to several non-persistent endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which may influence the risk of childhood obesity and cardiovascular diseases later in life. Previous prospective studies have mostly examined single-chemical effects, with inconsistent findings. We assessed the association between prenatal exposure to phthalates and phenols, individually and as a mixture, and body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure (BP) in preadolescents.

Methods

We used data from the Spanish INMA birth cohort study (n = 1,015), where the 1st and 3rd- trimester maternal urinary concentrations of eight phthalate metabolites and six phenols were quantified. At 11 years of age, we calculated BMI z-scores and measured systolic and diastolic BP. We estimated individual chemical effects with linear mixed models and joint effects of the chemical mixture with hierarchical Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR). Analyses were stratified by sex and by puberty status.

Results

In single-exposure models, benzophenone-3 (BP3) was nonmonotonically associated with higher BMI z-score (e.g. Quartile (Q) 3: β = 0.23 [95% CI = 0.03, 0.44] vs Q1) and higher diastolic BP (Q2: β = 1.27 [0.00, 2.53] mmHg vs Q1). Methyl paraben (MEPA) was associated with lower systolic BP (Q4: β = −1.67 [−3.31, −0.04] mmHg vs Q1). No consistent associations were observed for the other compounds. Results from the BKMR confirmed the single-exposure results and showed similar patterns of associations, with BP3 having the highest importance in the mixture models, especially among preadolescents who reached puberty status. No overall mixture effect was found, except for a tendency of higher BMI z-score and lower systolic BP in girls.

Conclusions

Prenatal exposure to UV-filter BP3 may be associated with higher BMI and diastolic BP during preadolescence, but there is little evidence for an overall phthalate and phenol mixture effect.

Keywords

Phthalates
Phenols
Parabens
Benzophenone-3
Body mass index (BMI)
Blood pressure (BP)

Abbreviations

BKMR
Bayesian kernel machine regression
BMI
body mass index
BP
blood pressure
BPA
bisphenol A
BP3
benzophenone-3
BUPA
butyl paraben
condPIP
conditional posterior inclusion probability
CVDs
cardiovascular diseases
DEHP
sum of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate metabolites
ETPA
ethyl paraben
GAMM
generalised additive mixed model
groupPIP
group posterior inclusion probability
ICC
intraclass correlation coefficient
INMA
Infancia y Medio Ambiente
IQR
interquartile range
LOD
limit of detection
MBzP
mono-benzyl phthalate
MEP
mono-ethyl phthalate
MEPA
methyl paraben
MECPP
mono-(2-ethyl-5-carboxy-pentyl) phthalate
MEHHP
mono-(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate
MEHP
mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate
MEOHP
mono-(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate
MiBP
mono-iso-butyl phthalate
MnBP
mono-n-butyl phthalate
NIPH
Norwegian Institute of Public Health
PPARγ
peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma
PRPA
propyl paraben
RAAS
rennin-angiotensin-aldosterone system
SD
standard deviation
UHPLC-MS/MS
ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry

Cited by (0)