Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 704, Taiwan.
Chemosphere. 2011 May;83(8):1192-9. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2010.12.079. Epub 2011 Jan 26.
It has been speculated that maternal phthalate exposure may affect reproductive development in human newborns. However, the mechanism awaits further investigation. The aim is to evaluate the association between maternal phthalate exposure and cord sex steroid hormones in pregnant women and their newborns from the general population. A total of 155 maternal and infant pair were recruited and analyzed. Levels of urinary phthalate metabolites and sex steroid hormones were determined using liquid chromatography/electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) and radioimmunoassay (RIA), respectively. No significant correlation was found between each steroid hormones and phthalate metabolites for male newborns, except MMP was marginally significantly correlated with E(2). After adjusting for maternal age, estradiol (E(2)) levels in cord serum from male newborns were not correlated with maternal urinary phthalate metabolites. In female newborns, the maternal urinary levels of mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP) and mono-(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate (5OH-MEHP) were negatively correlated with the free testosterone (fT) and fT/E(2) levels in cord serum with Pearson correlation coefficients ranging between -0.24 and -0.29 (p<0.05). Additionally, after gestational age was adjusted, the maternal urinary level of DEHP was negatively correlated with the free testosterone (fT) and fT/E(2) levels in cord serum. We suggest that maternal exposure to phthalates may affect sex steroid hormones status in fetal and newborn stage.
人们推测母体邻苯二甲酸酯暴露可能会影响人类新生儿的生殖发育。然而，其机制仍需进一步研究。本研究旨在评估一般人群中孕妇及其新生儿的母体邻苯二甲酸酯暴露与脐带性激素之间的关系。共招募并分析了 155 对母婴。采用液相色谱/电喷雾串联质谱（LC-ESI-MS/MS）和放射免疫分析（RIA）分别测定尿邻苯二甲酸酯代谢物和性激素水平。除 MMP 与 E（2）呈边缘显著相关外，男婴各性激素与邻苯二甲酸酯代谢物之间无显著相关性。校正母体年龄后，男婴脐带血清中雌二醇（E（2））水平与母体尿邻苯二甲酸酯代谢物无相关性。在女婴中，母体尿中单-（2-乙基己基）邻苯二甲酸酯（MEHP）和单-（2-乙基-5-羟基己基）邻苯二甲酸酯（5OH-MEHP）水平与脐带血清中的游离睾酮（fT）和 fT/E（2）水平呈负相关，Pearson 相关系数在-0.24 到-0.29 之间（p<0.05）。此外，校正胎龄后，DEHP 母体尿水平与脐带血清中的游离睾酮（fT）和 fT/E（2）水平呈负相关。我们提示，母体邻苯二甲酸酯暴露可能会影响胎儿和新生儿期的性激素状态。
