Association between Several Persistent Organic Pollutants and Thyroid Hormone Levels in Cord Blood Serum and Bloodspot of the Newborn Infants of Korea

PLoS One. 2015 May 12;10(5):e0125213. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0125213. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Current knowledge on adverse endocrine disruption effects of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) among newborn infants is limited and often controversial. To investigate the associations between prenatal exposure to major POPs and thyroid hormone levels among newborn infants, both cord serum or maternal serum concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were compared with five thyroid hormones in cord serum of newborn infants as well as TSH in bloodspot collected at 2 day after birth (n=104). Since cord serum thyroid hormones could be affected by those of mothers, thyroid hormone concentrations of the matching mothers at delivery were adjusted. In cord serum, BDE-47, -99, and Σchlordane (CHD) showed significant positive associations with cord or bloodspot TSH. At the same time, p,p'-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE) and hexachlorbenzene (HCB) showed negative associations with total T3 and total T4 in cord serum, respectively. Maternal exposure to β-hexachlorhexane (β-HCH), ΣCHD, ΣDDT, or p,p'-DDE were also associated with neonatal thyroid hormones. Although the sample size is small and the thyroid hormone levels of the subjects were within the reference range, our observation supports thyroid disrupting potential of several POPs among newborn infants, at the levels occurring in the general population. Considering the importance of thyroid hormones during gestation and early life stages, health implication of thyroid hormone effects by low level POPs exposure deserves further follow up investigations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Chlorine Compounds / blood
  • Endocrine Disruptors / blood*
  • Environmental Pollutants / blood*
  • Female
  • Fetal Blood / chemistry*
  • Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers / blood
  • Humans
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Male
  • Maternal Exposure
  • Maternal-Fetal Exchange
  • Middle Aged
  • Pesticides / blood
  • Pesticides / chemistry
  • Polychlorinated Biphenyls / blood
  • Pregnancy
  • Republic of Korea
  • Thyroid Hormones / blood*

Substances

  • Chlorine Compounds
  • Endocrine Disruptors
  • Environmental Pollutants
  • Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers
  • Pesticides
  • Thyroid Hormones
  • Polychlorinated Biphenyls

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a grant (11162MFDS722) from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of Korea(http://rnd.mfds.go.kr) in 2011 and the National Research Foundation of Korea (Project 2012R1A2A2A01015236, http://www.nrf.re.kr/nrf_eng_cms). S. M. Kim is supported by BK 21 Plus program of National Research Foundation of Korea (https://bkplus.nrf.re.kr). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.