Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, 11942, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Pharmacy, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan, Taiwan.
Chemosphere. 2024 Feb;350:141096. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.141096. Epub 2024 Jan 2.
Evidence on prenatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and its effects on newborns and potential biological mechanisms is not well defined yet. Therefore, this study aimed to examine whether PCBs are associated with lipid profile and non-invasive markers of hepatocyte injuries in samples of blood obtained from the umbilical cord. This study included 450 mothers-newborn pairs. Umbilical levels of PCBs were measured using Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrophotometry (GC/MS). Lipid profile including low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C), as well as liver enzymes i.e., alanine amino transferase (ALT), aspartate amino transferase (AST), γ-glutamyl-transferase (GGT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were determined from umbilical cord blood samples. Quantile g-computation analysis was applied to evaluate the collective influence of PCBs on both lipid profiles and liver enzymes, along with the impact of lipid profiles on liver enzymes. Exposure to the mixture of PCBs was significantly associated with increases in ALP, AST, ALT, and GGT levels in cord blood samples, with increments of 90.38 U/L (95%CI: 65.08, 115.70, p < 0.01), 11.88 U/L (95%CI: 9.03, 14.74, p < 0.01), 2.19 U/L (95%CI:1.43, 2.94, p < 0.01), and 50.67 U/L (95%CI: 36.32, 65.03, p < 0.01), respectively. Additionally, combined PCBs exposure was correlated with significant increases in umbilical TG, TC, and LDL-C levels, with values of 3.97 mg/dL (95%CI: 0.86, 7.09, p = 0.01), 6.30 mg/dL (95%CI: 2.98, 9.61, p < 0.01), and 4.63 mg/dL (95%CI: 2.04, 7.23, p < 0.01) respectively. Exposure to the mixture of lipids was linked to elevated levels of AST and GGT in umbilical cord blood samples. Furthermore, a noteworthy mediating role of TC and LDL-C was observed in the association between total PCBs exposure and umbilical cord blood liver enzyme levels. Overall our findings suggested that higher levels of umbilical cord blood PCBs and lipid profile could affect liver function in newborns.
关于产前接触多氯联苯 (PCBs) 及其对新生儿的影响以及潜在的生物学机制的证据尚未得到很好的定义。因此，本研究旨在检查 PCBs 是否与脐带血样本中的脂质谱和肝细胞损伤的非侵入性标志物有关。本研究纳入了 450 对母婴。使用气相色谱/质谱联用仪 (GC/MS) 测定脐带中的 PCBs 水平。从脐带血样本中测定脂质谱，包括低密度脂蛋白 (LDL-C)、总胆固醇 (TC)、甘油三酯 (TG) 和高密度脂蛋白 (HDL-C)，以及肝酶，即丙氨酸氨基转移酶 (ALT)、天冬氨酸氨基转移酶 (AST)、γ-谷氨酰转移酶 (GGT) 和碱性磷酸酶 (ALP)。应用分位数 g 计算分析评估 PCBs 混合物对脂质谱和肝酶的综合影响，以及脂质谱对肝酶的影响。暴露于 PCB 混合物与脐带血样本中 ALP、AST、ALT 和 GGT 水平的升高显著相关，分别增加 90.38 U/L（95%CI：65.08，115.70，p<0.01）、11.88 U/L（95%CI：9.03，14.74，p<0.01）、2.19 U/L（95%CI：1.43，2.94，p<0.01）和 50.67 U/L（95%CI：36.32，65.03，p<0.01）。此外，联合 PCBs 暴露与脐带 TG、TC 和 LDL-C 水平的显著升高相关，值分别为 3.97 mg/dL（95%CI：0.86，7.09，p=0.01）、6.30 mg/dL（95%CI：2.98，9.61，p<0.01）和 4.63 mg/dL（95%CI：2.04，7.23，p<0.01）。脂质混合物的暴露与脐带血样本中 AST 和 GGT 水平的升高有关。此外，在总 PCBs 暴露与脐带血肝酶水平之间的关联中，TC 和 LDL-C 具有显著的中介作用。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，脐带血中更高水平的 PCBs 和脂质谱可能会影响新生儿的肝功能。
