Given the potential adverse health effects related to toxic trace metal exposure and insufficient or excessive levels of essential trace metals in pregnant women and their fetuses, the present study characterizes biomarkers of metal and metalloid exposure at repeated time points during pregnancy among women in Puerto Rico. We recruited 1040 pregnant women from prenatal clinics and collected urine, blood, and questionnaire data on demographics, product use, food consumption, and water usage at up to three visits. All samples were analyzed for 16 metal(loid)s: arsenic (As), barium (Ba), beryllium (Be), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), cesium (Cs), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), titanium (Ti), uranium (U), vanadium (V), and zinc (Zn). Urine samples were additionally analyzed for molybdenum (Mo), platinum (Pt), antimony (Sb), tin (Sn), and tungsten (W). Mean concentrations of most metal(loid)s were higher among participants compared to the general US female population. We found weak to moderate correlations for inter-matrix comparisons, and moderate to strong correlations between several metal(loid)s measured within each biological matrix. Blood concentrations of Cu, Zn, Mn, Hg, and Pb were shown to reflect reliable biomarkers of exposure. For other metals, repeated samples are recommended for exposure assessment in epidemiology studies. Predictors of metal(loid) biomarkers included fish and rice consumption (urinary As), fish and canned food (blood Hg), drinking public water (blood Pb), smoking (blood Cd), and iron/folic acid supplement use (urinary Cs, Mo, and Sb). Characterization of metal(loid) biomarker variation over time and between matrices, and identification of important exposure sources, may inform future epidemiology studies and exposure reduction strategies.

中文翻译：

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波多黎各北部孕妇中尿液和血液中金属（金属）浓度的预测指标。

考虑到与孕妇及其胎儿中有毒微量金属接触以及必需微量金属的不足或过量有关的潜在不良健康影响，本研究对波多黎各妇女在怀孕期间重复的时间点接触金属和准金属的生物标志物进行了表征。我们从产前诊所招募了1040名孕妇，并在最多三次就诊时收集了有关人口统计，产品使用，食物消耗和用水的尿液，血液和问卷数据。分析所有样品中的16种金属（砷），砷（As），钡（Ba），铍（Be），镉（Cd），钴（Co），铬（Cr），铯（Cs），铜（Cu ），汞（Hg），锰（Mn），镍（Ni），铅（Pb），钛（Ti），铀（U），钒（V）和锌（Zn）。尿液样品中还分析了钼（Mo），铂（Pt），锑（Sb），锡（Sn）和钨（W）。与美国普通女性人群相比，参与者中大多数金属（胶体）的平均浓度更高。我们发现矩阵间的比较具有弱到中等的相关性，并且在每个生物基质中测得的几种金属（胶体）之间也有中等到强的相关性。血液中的铜，锌，锰，汞和铅的浓度可反映出可靠的暴露生物标志物。对于其他金属，建议在流行病学研究中重复取样以进行暴露评估。金属（类）生物标志物的预测指标包括鱼和大米的消费量（尿中砷），鱼和罐头食品（血汞），饮用水（铅中铅），吸烟（镉中毒）​​以及铁/叶酸的补充使用（尿中的Cs） ，Mo和Sb）。