Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 280 South Chongqing Road, 200025, Shanghai, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2016 Jun;23(12):12050-9. doi: 10.1007/s11356-016-6395-9. Epub 2016 Mar 11.
Although MeHg is a confirmed neurotoxin at sufficiently high dosages, the effect of prenatal low-level Hg exposure on infant neurodevelopment is still unknown. Four hundred ten mother-infant pairs were recruited in rural northern China from September 2010 to September 2012. We investigated maternal diet during pregnancy, collected maternal and umbilical blood samples, and tested infant neurodevelopment using Gesell developmental schedules (GDS) at the age of 1 year old. The geometric means (GM) of Hg exposure in maternal and umbilical blood were 0.72 and 1.2 μg/L, respectively. Positive associations between Hg levels and the frequency of total fish consumption were found (Spearman's correlation, r = 0.09 for maternal Hg, r = 0.14 for umbilical Hg, p < 0.01). After adjusting for confounding factors, we found a log-unit increase in umbilical blood Hg levels was associated with a 4.22-point (95 % confidence interval (95 %CI) 0.77 to 7.67) increase in the adaptive domain and a 4.06-point (95 %CI 0.51 to 7.62) increase in the social domain. No significant association has been found between other domains and Hg levels in our study. In further analysis, we noticed the positive correlation between the developmental quotient (DQ) scores of the adaptive domain and frequencies of total fish consumption (p = 0.04). Our results failed to indicate the adverse effects between prenatal Hg exposure and infant neurodevelopment. However, given the low-level Hg exposure and its predominant source, the potential positive associations in our study may be attributed to the beneficial nutrients of fish consumption.
虽然甲基汞（MeHg）在足够高的剂量下是一种已被确认的神经毒素，但产前低水平汞暴露对婴儿神经发育的影响仍不清楚。2010 年 9 月至 2012 年 9 月，在中国北方农村招募了 410 对母婴。我们调查了孕妇在怀孕期间的饮食，采集了孕妇和脐带血样本，并在婴儿 1 岁时使用盖塞尔发育时间表（GDS）测试了婴儿的神经发育情况。母亲和脐带血中汞暴露的几何平均值（GM）分别为 0.72 和 1.2μg/L。发现汞水平与总鱼摄入量的频率呈正相关（Spearman 相关，母亲汞为 0.09，脐带汞为 0.14，p<0.01）。在调整混杂因素后，我们发现脐带血汞水平每增加一个对数单位，适应性领域的得分增加 4.22 分（95%置信区间（95%CI）0.77 至 7.67），社会领域的得分增加 4.06 分（95%CI 0.51 至 7.62）。在我们的研究中，没有发现其他领域与汞水平之间存在显著关联。在进一步的分析中，我们注意到适应性领域的发育商（DQ）得分与总鱼摄入量的频率之间存在正相关（p=0.04）。我们的研究结果并未表明产前汞暴露与婴儿神经发育之间存在不良影响。然而，鉴于低水平的汞暴露及其主要来源，我们研究中观察到的潜在正相关可能归因于鱼类消费的有益营养。
