Lin Yuzhe, Pan Xiong-Fei, Miao Maohua, Guo Huicai, Meng Peipei, Huang Wei
College of Environment and Climate, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Health, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
Section of Epidemiology and Population Health, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Related Diseases of Women and Children, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Toxics. 2025 May 30;13(6):461. doi: 10.3390/toxics13060461.
Gestational exposure to environmental chemicals has long been considered an important contributor to adverse pregnancy outcomes. While humans are exposed to a large complexity of environmental chemicals under real scenarios, existing studies have generally focused on a limited number of substances when exploring the health impacts of environmental exposure. Our work employed the recently developed ExpoNano strategy to characterize exposure to 283 environmental chemicals via urine in pregnant women from three Chinese cities and explored the association between environmental exposure and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) through a nested case-control study within a prospective birth cohort. The results revealed ubiquitous gestational exposure (detection frequency > 70%) to 37 chemicals, including selected mono-phthalate esters (mono-PAEs), non-PAE plasticizers, synthetic antioxidants, organophosphate esters, personal care products, UV stabilizers, photoinitiators, pesticides, and hydroxy polyaromatic hydrocarbons across the three cities. The cumulative concentrations of detectable chemicals displayed median values of 461-741 ng/mL in different populations of pregnant women, which exhibited significant variations across regions. In the GDM case-control study (85 GDM cases and 170 healthy controls), although mixed exposure was not associated with the risk of GDM, exposure to acetyl tributyl citrate, an emerging plasticizer, was found to be significantly associated with GDM risk, based on both the single-pollutant and mixed exposure models. However, it should be noted that due to the relatively small sample size, the findings should be interpreted as preliminary exploratory results requiring further validation in larger cohorts. This study demonstrates the complexity of environmental chemical exposure during pregnancy, indicating a critical need for further investigations of the potential impact on pregnancy outcomes.
长期以来，孕期接触环境化学物质一直被认为是不良妊娠结局的一个重要因素。虽然在实际情况下，人类会接触到大量复杂的环境化学物质，但现有研究在探索环境暴露对健康的影响时，通常只关注有限的几种物质。我们的研究采用了最近开发的ExpoNano策略，对来自中国三个城市的孕妇尿液中283种环境化学物质的暴露情况进行了表征，并通过在前瞻性出生队列中进行的巢式病例对照研究，探讨了环境暴露与妊娠期糖尿病（GDM）风险之间的关联。结果显示，在这三个城市中，孕妇普遍暴露于37种化学物质（检测频率>70%），包括某些单邻苯二甲酸酯（单PAEs）、非PAE增塑剂、合成抗氧化剂、有机磷酸酯、个人护理产品、紫外线稳定剂、光引发剂、农药和羟基多环芳烃。可检测化学物质的累积浓度在不同孕妇群体中的中位数为461-741 ng/mL，且在不同地区存在显著差异。在GDM病例对照研究（85例GDM病例和170例健康对照）中，虽然混合暴露与GDM风险无关，但基于单污染物模型和混合暴露模型，发现接触一种新兴增塑剂乙酰柠檬酸三丁酯与GDM风险显著相关。然而，需要注意的是，由于样本量相对较小，这些发现应被视为初步探索性结果，需要在更大的队列中进一步验证。这项研究证明了孕期环境化学物质暴露的复杂性，表明迫切需要进一步调查其对妊娠结局的潜在影响。
