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Quantified retrospective biomonitoring of fetal and infant elemental exposure using LA-ICP-MS analysis of deciduous dentin in three contrasting human cohorts

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology (2024)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Spatial elemental analysis of deciduous tooth dentin combined with odontochronological estimates can provide an early life (in utero to ~2 years of age) history of inorganic element exposure and status.

Objective

To demonstrate the importance of data normalization to a certified reference material to enable between-study comparisons, using populations with assumed contrasting elemental exposures.

Methods

We used laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) of dentin to derive a history of elemental composition from three distinct cohort studies: a present day rural cohort, (the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study (NHBCS; N = 154)), an historical cohort from an urban area (1958-1970), (the St. Louis Baby Tooth Study (SLBT; N = 78)), and a present-day Nigerian cohort established to study maternal HIV transmission (Dental caries and its association with Oral Microbiomes and HIV in young children-Nigeria (DOMHaIN; N = 31)).

Results

We report Li, Al, Mn, Cu, Zn, Sr, Ba and Pb concentrations (µg/g) and qualitatively examine As, Cd and Hg across all three cohorts. Rates of detection were highest, both overall and for each cohort individually, for Zn, Sr, Ba and Li. Zinc was detected in 100% of samples and was stably present in teeth at a concentration range of 64 – 86 µg/g. Mercury, As and Cd detection rates were the lowest, and had high variability within individual ablated spots. We found the highest concentrations of Pb in the pre- and postnatal dentin of the SLBT cohort, consistent with the prevalent use of Pb as an additive to gasoline prior to 1975. The characteristic decline in Mn after the second trimester was observed in all cohorts.

Impact

  • Spatially resolved elemental analysis of deciduous teeth combined with methods for estimating crown formation times can be used to reconstruct an early-life history of elemental exposure inaccessible via other biomarkers. Quantification of data into absolute values using an external standard reference material has not been conducted since 2012, preventing comparison between studies, a common and highly informative component of epidemiology. We demonstrate, with three contrasting populations, that absolute quantification produces data with the lowest variability, compares well with available data and recommends that future tooth biomarker studies report data in this way.

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Fig. 1: Ablation patterns of well-detected (calcium, black and manganese, blue) and poorly detected (arsenic, green) elements obtained from primary teeth using LA-ICP-MS.
Fig. 2: Elemental concentrations in deciduous dentin.
Fig. 3: Distribution of log transformed elemental concentrations in prenatal and postnatal dentin.

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Data availability

Use of the data may be possible under certain conditions by contacting the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study Principal Investigator: Margaret R. Karagas. (Margaret.r.karagas@dartmouth.edu), the Saint Louis Baby Teeth Study Principal Investigator, Marc G. Weisskopf (mweissko@hsph.harvard.edu) and the Dental Caries and its association with Oral Microbiomes and HIV in young children-Nigeria Principal Investigator, Modupe O. Coker (mc2190@sdm.rutgers.edu).

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the families, investigators, and study staff of DOMHaIN, SLBT and the NHBCS.

Funding

This work was supported by grants P01ES022832, P42ES007373, and from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, grant P20GM104416 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), grant UG3/UH3OD023275 from the National Institutes of Health Office of the Director. JAB was supported by T32CA134286. MOC was supported by R01DE02815NIH. TP was supported by NIH 5UH3OD023275, NIGMS 1R24GM141194 & NSF 2042513. MGW and FBB were supported by R01ES031943, P42ES030990, and P30ES000002. Laser ablation elemental imaging was performed at the Dartmouth Biomedical National Elemental Imaging Resource (BNEIR) supported by NIGMS R24GM141194. The funders had no role in the study design, collection, analysis interpretation of the data, and writing of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA

    T. Punshon

  2. Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA

    Julia A. Bauer, Margaret R. Karagas & Modupe O. Coker

  3. Department of Oral Biology, Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, Rutgers University, 110 Bergen Street, Room C-845, Newark, NJ, 07103, USA

    Modupe O. Coker

  4. Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 021156, USA

    Marc G. Weisskopf

  5. Radiation and Public Health Project, Ocean City, NJ, 08226, USA

    Joseph J. Mangano

  6. The Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA

    Felicitas B. Bidlack

  7. Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA

    Matthew N. Barr & Brian P. Jackson

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Contributions

T. Punshon: Investigation, Data curation, Writing - Original Draft preparation, Writing – Review and Editing. J.A. Bauer: Formal Analysis, Writing – Original draft preparation, Writing – Review and Editing, Visualization. Margaret R. Karagas: Funding acquisition, Data curation, Supervision, Project Administration, Writing – Review and Editing. Modupe O. Coker: Funding acquisition, Data curation, Supervision, Project Administration, Writing – Review and Editing. Marc G. Weisskopf: Funding acquisition, Data curation, Supervision, Project Administration, Writing – Review and Editing. Joseph J. Mangano: Project Administration. Felicitas B. Bidlack: Methodology, Supervision, Writing – Review and Editing. Matthew N. Barr: Investigation. Brian P. Jackson: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing – Review and Editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to T. Punshon.

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NHBCS: Participants received a detailed description of the study procedures before consenting to participate. Study materials and protocols for NHBCS were approved by the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects at Dartmouth College. Data from the first analyzed NHBCS teeth (n = 154) are included in this study.

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Punshon, T., Bauer, J.A., Karagas, M.R. et al. Quantified retrospective biomonitoring of fetal and infant elemental exposure using LA-ICP-MS analysis of deciduous dentin in three contrasting human cohorts. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-024-00652-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-024-00652-3

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