Exposición a contaminantes emergentes y efectos en obesidad infantil y disrupción metabólica (OBESIDAD METAB). PROYECTO INMA

Duration

01/01/2013 ? 31/12/2015

Coordinator

Martine Vrijheid

Funded by

FONDO DE INVESTIGACIÓN SANITARIA. ISCIII

Objectives: New hypotheses suggest that exposure to chemicals may interfere with endocrine and metabolic systems to induce weight gain and obesity, and that pregnancy is an especially vulnerable period. Prospective epidemiological studies are needed to establish whether such “obesogenic” effects seen in animals are supported by evidence in humans. The main objective is thus to study the association between prenatal exposure to suspected obesogens (PFCs, phthalates and pesticides) and childhood growth, obesity and metabolic markers up to age 7 years.

Methods: The project will be implemented in 1200 mother-child pairs of 3 cohorts of the INMA network (www.proyectoinma.org). We will determine the levels of exposure to PFCs in plasma samples and phthalates in urine samples already collected from the mothers during the first trimester of pregnancy. To assess the role of genetic susceptibility factors we will genotype genes in different metabolic and detoxification pathways. We will also measure biomarkers of metabolic disruption (e.g cholesterol and leptin) in already collected blood samples of the children. Obesity and other metabolic outcomes have been measured in the children at age 1-2 years, 4-5 years and 7 years. Besides traditional statistical methods, we will use novel structural models to assess the potential joint effects of suspected obesogens on obesity and metabolic outcomes. This will be the largest prospective epidemiological study to assess the obesogenic effects of multiple emerging exposures in children.