Abstract
Animal studies indicated that bisphenol A (BPA) exposure during pregnancy may disrupt thyroid function which is critical for fetal development. However, few epidemiological studies have examined this topic and the results were inconsistent. We aimed to evaluate whether prenatal BPA exposure is associated with thyroid hormone levels in Chinese mothers and newborns with stratification by maternal body mass index (BMI). BPA concentration were measured in urine samples collected from 555 women at late pregnancy. Maternal serum free thyroxin (FT4), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPO-Ab) concentrations at the third trimester were abstracted from medical records. Cord serum-free triiodothyronine (FT3), FT4, TSH, and TPO-Ab levels were measured in 398 newborns. Prenatal urinary BPA was detected in 98.5% of mothers with a geometric mean of 1.32 ng/mL (95% CI 1.17–1.49 ng/mL). With each 10-fold increase in BPA concentrations, maternal log10_(TSH) mIU/L was 0.10 lowered (95% CI − 0.20, − 0.005, p < 0.05) among pre-pregnancy BMI > 23 kg/m2, with adjustment for maternal age, maternal education, gestation diabetes mellitus (GDM), husband smoking during pregnancy, parity, and gestational age at thyroid parameters measured, but no association was observed in pre-pregnancy BMI < 18.5, or 18.5–22.9 kg/m2 stratum. No BPA-associated changes were observed in maternal FT4 level or odds of positive TPO-Ab in all BMI stratum. Also, no associations were observed between prenatal urinary BPA concentration and cord serum FT4, FT3, TSH levels, and odds of positive TPO-Ab in both male and female newborns among pre-pregnancy BMI < 18.5, 18.5–22.9 or > 23 kg/m2 stratum. In this study, prenatal urinary BPA concentration was associated with lower maternal TSH among women with overweight, but not associated with other maternal thyroid parameters or cord serum thyroid parameters across maternal BMI categories. More research on pregnant women and newborns cohort with BPA exposure are warranted.
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Abbreviations
- BPA:
-
Bisphenol A
- FT3:
-
Free triiodothyronine
- FT4:
-
Free thyroxin
- TSH:
-
Thyroid stimulating hormone
- TPO-Ab:
-
thyroid peroxidase antibody
- T3:
-
Triiodothyronine
- T4:
-
Thyroxine
- BMI:
-
Body mass index
- GDM:
-
Gestation diabetes mellitus
- GM:
-
Geometric mean
- QC:
-
Quality control
- LOD:
-
Limit of detection
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Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the participating women in our study for their support.
Funding
This study was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 81673178, No. 81961128023), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2017YFE0124700), NSFC (No. 81372954), and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission—Gaofeng Clinical Medicine Grant (20152518) and was partly funded by the Gates Foundation Healthy Birth, Growth & Development knowledge integration (HBGDki) project (No. OPP1153191). Dr. Zhiwei Liu was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC1000203).
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Wang, X., Tang, N., Nakayama, S.F. et al. Maternal urinary bisphenol A concentration and thyroid hormone levels of Chinese mothers and newborns by maternal body mass index. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 10939–10949 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-07705-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-07705-8