Exposure to trace metals may impact reproductive health outcomes through perturbations in maternal immune signaling molecules. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 390 pregnant women from the LIFECODES birth cohort and investigated the associations between 17 urinary metals and five immune biomarkers measured in the 3rd trimester (median 26 weeks gestation). We used linear regression to estimate pair-wise associations and applied elastic net and Bayesian kernel machine regression to identify important contributing exposures analytes as well as non-linear effects. Maternal urinary manganese, nickel, and barium were positively associated with maternal plasma interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Elastic net and Bayesian kernel machine regression identified manganese as the dominant trace metal in association with IL-1β. An interquartile range difference in manganese (0.6 μg/L) was associated with a 29 % increase in IL-1β (95 % CI: 12.4-48.2). In conclusion, trace metal exposures were associated with biomarkers of immune perturbations, and this warrants further investigation.

中文翻译：

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在尿微量金属的混合物分析框架内，锰与怀孕期间血浆白介素-1β升高有关。

暴露于痕量金属可能会通过扰动母体免疫信号分子而影响生殖健康结果。我们对来自LIFECODES出生队列的390名孕妇进行了横断面研究，并调查了在妊娠第3个月（妊娠26周）中测量的17种尿金属与5种免疫生物标志物之间的关联。我们使用线性回归来估计两两关联，并应用弹性网和贝叶斯核仁机器回归来确定重要的贡献暴露分析物以及非线性效应。孕妇尿中锰，镍和钡与孕妇血浆白细胞介素-1β（IL-1β）正相关。弹性网和贝叶斯核仁回归分析确定锰是与IL-1β相关的主要痕量金属。锰的四分位数间距差异（0.6μg/ L）与IL-1β升高29％（95％CI：12.4-48.2）有关。总之，痕量金属暴露与免疫扰动的生物标志物有关，这值得进一步研究。