Uy Jessica P, Shenoy Thanh-Nga, Lee Yoonji, Buthmann Jessica L, Gotlib Ian H
Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2025 Nov;181:107586. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107586. Epub 2025 Aug 25.
Childhood exposure to pollution has been associated with elevated levels of depressive symptoms during adolescence. Epidemiological studies have related exposure to pollution to altered pubertal timing; however, the effects of pollution exposure on levels of pubertal hormones and their developmental trajectories (i.e., pubertal tempo) are not known. Furthermore, how pollution-related alterations in pubertal development influence trajectories of depressive symptoms during adolescence is not well understood. One factor that has been linked to pollution exposure, pubertal development, and depressive symptoms, and that is modifiable, is sleep disturbances; these variables, however, have not been examined together in a single investigation. The current study examined the effects of pollution burden during childhood on trajectories of adrenal and gonadal development and their impact on trajectories of sleep disturbances and depressive symptoms during adolescence. 184 adolescents (109 females) completed four assessments, each approximately 2 years apart, starting at 9-13 years of age (M=11.37, SD=1.06). At each timepoint, participants completed measures assessing pubertal development, sleep disturbances, and depressive symptoms and provided saliva samples, from which levels of DHEA, testosterone, and estradiol (females only) were assayed. We estimated participants' pollution burden at the census tract-level using their residential addresses and publicly available environmental data. We found that female adolescents residing in neighborhoods with greater pollution burden showed delayed adrenarche and gonadarche based on levels of DHEA and estradiol, respectively, followed by faster DHEA and estradiol tempo into middle adolescence. These pollution burden-related increases in DHEA and estradiol tempo interacted with increasing levels of sleep disturbances to predict the highest increase in levels of depressive symptoms. Although pollution burden was associated with altered adrenal development in male adolescents, effects differed for DHEA and self-reported development, and these alterations did not interact with increases in sleep disturbances to predict trajectories of depressive symptoms. Thus, childhood pollution burden appears to affect pubertal development in sex-dependent ways that contribute to sex-differentiated risk for depression in adolescence.
童年时期接触污染与青少年期抑郁症状水平升高有关。流行病学研究已将污染暴露与青春期发育时间的改变联系起来；然而，污染暴露对青春期激素水平及其发育轨迹（即青春期节奏）的影响尚不清楚。此外，污染相关的青春期发育改变如何影响青少年期抑郁症状的轨迹也未得到充分理解。一个与污染暴露、青春期发育和抑郁症状相关且可改变的因素是睡眠障碍；然而，这些变量尚未在一项单一调查中一起进行研究。本研究考察了童年时期的污染负担对肾上腺和性腺发育轨迹的影响，以及它们对青少年期睡眠障碍和抑郁症状轨迹的影响。184名青少年（109名女性）完成了四项评估，每次评估间隔约2年，从9至13岁开始（平均年龄 = 11.37，标准差 = 1.06）。在每个时间点，参与者完成了评估青春期发育、睡眠障碍和抑郁症状的测量，并提供了唾液样本，从中检测了脱氢表雄酮（DHEA）、睾酮和雌二醇（仅女性）的水平。我们使用参与者的居住地址和公开可用的环境数据，在人口普查区层面估计了他们的污染负担。我们发现，居住在污染负担较重社区的女性青少年，分别基于DHEA和雌二醇水平，出现肾上腺初现和性腺初现延迟，随后在青春期中期DHEA和雌二醇节奏加快。这些与污染负担相关的DHEA和雌二醇节奏加快，与睡眠障碍水平的增加相互作用，预测了抑郁症状水平的最高增加。虽然污染负担与男性青少年肾上腺发育改变有关，但DHEA和自我报告的发育影响有所不同，且这些改变并未与睡眠障碍的增加相互作用，以预测抑郁症状的轨迹。因此，童年时期的污染负担似乎以性别依赖的方式影响青春期发育，这导致了青少年期抑郁的性别差异风险。
