Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA; National Institute of Standards and Technology, Hollings Marine Laboratory, Charleston, SC, USA.
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, NY, USA; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, NY, USA.
Environ Int. 2018 Jan;110:61-70. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2017.10.007. Epub 2017 Nov 1.
Select phthalates have antiandrogenic activity, which raises concern for adverse developmental outcomes given widespread exposure of pregnant women. Investigators have reported associations between maternal urinary phthalates and altered anogenital distance (AGD), a marker of in utero androgen activity, among offspring. However, data assessing the impact of race on these associations is sparse.
To evaluate associations between prenatal phthalate exposure and AGD in a racially diverse newborn population.
We prospectively collected second trimester urine from 187 African American and 193 white mothers, and used liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to measure eight phthalate metabolites and calculate molar sums. We measured anopenile (APD) and anoscrotal (ASD) distances of 171 boys and anoclitoral (ACD) and anofourchette (AFD) distances of 128 girls at delivery. We collected sociodemographic and clinical data from questionnaires and delivery records.
We identified a statistically significant inverse association for mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP) and APD in boys (B=-1.57mm, p=0.02), which was stronger for African Americans (B=-2.07mm, p=0.04) than for whites (B=-1.23mm, p=0.22), although the racial interaction was not statistically significant (p=0.56). We found a longer ASD for higher molar sums of dibutyl phthalate (∑DBP; B=0.99mm, p=0.04), with stronger associations for whites (B=1.30mm, p=0.04) than for African Americans (B=0.39mm, p=0.59), again without a statistically significant racial interaction (p=0.34). Among girls, we found inverse associations for tertiles of MEHP with AFD and ACD, and statistically significant race-based interactions, in which ACD was longer for whites and shorter for African Americans, following exposure to monoethyl phthalate (MEP; p=0.01) and ∑DBP (p=0.08).
Our findings suggest race and sex play important roles in phthalate-associated reproductive developmental toxicity, with important implications for designing future investigations and health interventions.
某些邻苯二甲酸酯具有抗雄激素活性，这引起了人们对孕妇广泛接触这些物质后对发育产生不良影响的担忧。研究人员已经报告了孕妇尿液中邻苯二甲酸酯与后代的生殖器-肛门距离（AGD）改变之间的关联，AGD 是一种宫内雄激素活性的标志物。然而，评估种族对这些关联影响的数据还很匮乏。
评估在种族多样化的新生儿人群中，产前邻苯二甲酸酯暴露与 AGD 之间的关联。
我们前瞻性地收集了 187 名非裔美国人和 193 名白人母亲的妊娠中期尿液，并使用液相色谱-串联质谱（LC-MS/MS）测量了 8 种邻苯二甲酸酯代谢物，并计算了摩尔总和。我们在分娩时测量了 171 名男婴的阴茎-阴囊（APD）和阴茎-会阴（ASD）距离，以及 128 名女婴的阴蒂-阴唇（ACD）和阴蒂-阴唇系带（AFD）距离。我们从问卷和分娩记录中收集了社会人口统计学和临床数据。
我们发现，在男孩中，单-2-乙基己基邻苯二甲酸酯（MEHP）与 APD 之间存在统计学上显著的负相关（B=-1.57mm，p=0.02），非裔美国人的相关性更强（B=-2.07mm，p=0.04），而白人的相关性较弱（B=-1.23mm，p=0.22），尽管种族间的相互作用没有统计学意义（p=0.56）。我们发现，较高的二丁基邻苯二甲酸酯摩尔总和（∑DBP）与 ASD 呈正相关（B=0.99mm，p=0.04），这种相关性在白人中更强（B=1.30mm，p=0.04），而非裔美国人中较弱（B=0.39mm，p=0.59），但种族间的相互作用没有统计学意义（p=0.34）。在女孩中，我们发现 MEHP 三分之一位与 AFD 和 ACD 之间存在负相关，并且在暴露于单乙基邻苯二甲酸酯（MEP）和∑DBP 后，MEP 和∑DBP 与种族之间存在统计学显著的相互作用，表明阴蒂-阴唇距离（ACD）在白人中较长，在非裔美国人中较短（p=0.01 和 p=0.08）。
我们的研究结果表明，种族和性别在邻苯二甲酸酯相关的生殖发育毒性中发挥着重要作用，这对未来的研究和健康干预具有重要意义。
