College of Environment and Climate, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Health, Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Section of Epidemiology and Population Health & Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Related Diseases of Women and Children & National Medical Products Administration Key Laboratory for Technical Research on Drug Products In Vitro and In Vivo Correlation, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China; West China Biomedical Big Data Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China; Shuangliu Institute of Women's and Children's Health, Shuangliu Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
Environ Pollut. 2024 Aug 15;355:124238. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2024.124238. Epub 2024 May 27.
Recognizing the risk factors for dyslipidemia during pregnancy is crucial for safeguarding the health of both the mothers and the offspring. Growing evidence emerged and suggested links between environmental factors, including metals, and alteration in lipid levels or dyslipidemia in general populations. However, knowledge of the associations during pregnancy remains extremely lacking. Herein, we aimed to explore whether elevated metal exposure constitutes a risk factor for dyslipidemia in pregnant women. Based on the Tongji-Shuangliu Birth Cohort (TSBC), a total of 663 pregnant women were recruited and their urinary levels of 17 metals and blood lipid biomarkers in early pregnancy were measured, namely triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). The multivariable linear regression models revealed that exposure to selected metals during early pregnancy was significantly associated with some important biomarkers. In particular, after natural log-transformed for the levels of lipid biomarkers and metals, copper (Cu) exposure was positively associated with HDL-C (β = 0.024, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.046), while zinc (Zn) was associated with TG (β = 0.062, 95% CI: 0.013, 0.110) and selenium with TC (β = 0.028, 95% CI: 0.004, 0.054). Exposure to rubidium (Rb) was positively associated with multiple lipid biomarkers, including HDL-C (β = 0.020, 95% CI: 0.002, 0.037) and LDL-C (β = 0.022, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.042). Mixture exposure analysis further identified significant associations between Cu and HDL-C, Zn and TG, Rb and HDL-C, when multiple metal exposures were considered in the Bayesian kernel machine regression model simultaneously. Our findings showed that exposure to several metals during early pregnancy was associated with an increased prevalence of blood lipid abnormalities in pregnant women. These findings underscore the potential impact of metal combinations on lipid metabolism and increase our understanding of the risk factors associated with abnormal lipid metabolism during pregnancy.
认识到怀孕期间血脂异常的风险因素对于保障母婴健康至关重要。越来越多的证据表明，环境因素（包括金属）与一般人群的血脂水平或血脂异常之间存在关联。然而，对于怀孕期间的这些关联，我们的了解仍然非常有限。在此，我们旨在探讨孕妇金属暴露水平升高是否构成血脂异常的风险因素。基于同济-双流出生队列（TSBC），共招募了 663 名孕妇，在其孕早期测量了 17 种金属和血脂生物标志物的尿液水平，分别是甘油三酯（TG）、总胆固醇（TC）、低密度脂蛋白胆固醇（LDL-C）和高密度脂蛋白胆固醇（HDL-C）。多变量线性回归模型显示，孕早期某些金属暴露与一些重要的生物标志物显著相关。具体而言，在对血脂生物标志物和金属水平进行自然对数转换后，铜（Cu）暴露与 HDL-C 呈正相关（β=0.024，95%置信区间：0.001，0.046），而锌（Zn）与 TG 相关（β=0.062，95%置信区间：0.013，0.110），硒与 TC 相关（β=0.028，95%置信区间：0.004，0.054）。铷（Rb）暴露与多种血脂生物标志物呈正相关，包括 HDL-C（β=0.020，95%置信区间：0.002，0.037）和 LDL-C（β=0.022，95%置信区间：0.001，0.042）。当在贝叶斯核机器回归模型中同时考虑多种金属暴露时，混合暴露分析进一步确定了 Cu 与 HDL-C、Zn 与 TG、Rb 与 HDL-C 之间的显著关联。我们的研究结果表明，孕早期多种金属暴露与孕妇血脂异常的患病率增加有关。这些发现强调了金属组合对脂质代谢的潜在影响，并增加了我们对与怀孕期间异常脂质代谢相关的风险因素的理解。
