Nutrition and Clinical Services Division (NCSD), International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh.
Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, University of Tampere, 3352 Tampere, Finland.
Toxins (Basel). 2022 Dec 3;14(12):855. doi: 10.3390/toxins14120855.
Aflatoxin can cross the blood-brain barrier, damage brain tissues, and have the potential to harm the development of the human brain. Although dietary aflatoxin exposure is common in children, there is a paucity of data on aflatoxin exposure and child developmental outcomes. The child's cognitive, motor, and language functions were assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-III or BSID-III at the same time points. Association between exposure to aflatoxin and subtests of BSID-III were examined using mixed-effect linear regression. Aflatoxin assays were performed on 194, 167, and 163 children at 15, 24, and 36 months of age, and chronic aflatoxin exposure was detected in 20.6%, 16.8%, and 60.7% of children, respectively. Multi-variable analyses showed that aflatoxin exposure was independently related to the children's cognitive score (β: -0.69; 95% CI: -1.36, -0.02), receptive language score (β: -0.90; 95% CI: -1.62, -0.17), and expressive language score (β: -1.01; 95% CI: -1.96, -0.05). We did not observe any association between exposure to aflatoxin and the motor function of children. Chronic exposure to aflatoxin exposure was linked to reduced cognitive, expressive, and receptive language scores of the study children. Further research is needed in a different setting to confirm this novel finding.
黄曲霉毒素可以穿过血脑屏障，损伤脑组织，有可能损害人类大脑的发育。虽然儿童普遍存在饮食中黄曲霉毒素暴露的情况，但有关黄曲霉毒素暴露与儿童发育结果的资料却很少。在相同的时间点，使用贝利婴幼儿发育量表第三版（Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-III 或 BSID-III）评估儿童的认知、运动和语言功能。使用混合效应线性回归检查黄曲霉毒素暴露与 BSID-III 子测试之间的关联。在 15、24 和 36 个月时，对 194、167 和 163 名儿童进行了黄曲霉毒素检测，分别有 20.6%、16.8%和 60.7%的儿童检测出慢性黄曲霉毒素暴露。多变量分析表明，黄曲霉毒素暴露与儿童的认知评分（β：-0.69；95%CI：-1.36，-0.02）、接受性语言评分（β：-0.90；95%CI：-1.62，-0.17）和表达性语言评分（β：-1.01；95%CI：-1.96，-0.05）独立相关。我们没有观察到黄曲霉毒素暴露与儿童运动功能之间的任何关联。慢性黄曲霉毒素暴露与研究儿童的认知、表达和接受性语言评分降低有关。需要在不同环境中开展进一步的研究来证实这一新发现。
