Prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances and cardiometabolic risk in children from the spanish INMA birth cohort study

Manzano Salgado, Cyntia Beatriz, 1987-; Casas Sanahuja, Maribel; Lopez-Espinosa, Maria-José; Ballester Díez, Ferran; Iñiguez, Carmen; Martínez Muriano, David; Romaguera Bosch, Dora; Fernández-Barrés, Sílvia; Santa Marina, Loreto; Basterrechea, Mikel; Schettgen, Thomas; Valvi, Damaskini, 1983-; Vioque, Jesus; Sunyer Deu, Jordi; Vrijheid, Martine

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP1330

Prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances and cardiometabolic risk in children from the spanish INMA birth cohort study

Citation

Manzano-Salgado CB, Casas M, Lopez-Espinosa MJ, Ballester F, Iñiguez C, Martinez D et al. Prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances and cardiometabolic risk in children from the spanish INMA birth cohort study. Environ Health Perspect. 2017 Sep 20;125(9):097018. DOI: 10.1289/EHP1330

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) may affect body mass index (BMI) and other components of cardiometabolic (CM) risk during childhood, but evidence is scarce and inconsistent. OBJECTIVES: We estimated associations between prenatal PFAS exposures and outcomes relevant to cardiometabolic risk, including a composite CM-risk score. METHODS: We measured perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) in maternal plasma (first trimester). We assessed weight gain from birth until 6 mo. At 4 and 7 y, we calculated the age- and sex-specific z-scores for BMI, waist circumference (WC), and blood pressure (BP) (n≈1,000). At age 4, we calculated the age-, sex-, and region-specific z-scores for cholesterol, triglycerides (TGs), high-density (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (n=627). At age 4, we calculated a CM-risk score (n=386) as the sum of the individual age-, sex-, and region-specific z-scores for WC, BP, HDL-C, and TGs. We used the average between the negative of HDL-C z-score and TGs z-score to give similar weight to lipids and the other components in the score. A higher score indicates a higher cardiometabolic risk at age 4. RESULTS: PFOS and PFOA were the most abundant PFAS (geometric mean: 5.80 and 2.32 ng/mL, respectively). In general, prenatal PFAS concentrations were not associated with individual outcomes or the combined CM-risk score. Exceptions were positive associations between prenatal PFHxS and TGs z-score [for a doubling of exposure, β=0.11; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.01, 0.21], and between PFNA and the CM-risk score (β=0.60; 95% CI: 0.04, 1.16). There was not clear or consistent evidence of modification by sex. CONCLUSIONS: We observed little or no evidence of associations between low prenatal PFAS exposures and outcomes related to cardiometabolic risk in a cohort of Spanish children followed from birth until 7 y. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1330