Maternal diet and prenatal exposure to dioxine and other pollutants

In this paper published in Science of the Total Environment, led by Eleni Papadopoulou and Manolis Kogevinas, from the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), the researchers investigated the potential endocrine disruptive effect of prenatal exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) through maternal diet, by measuring anogenital distance in newborns and young children.

The researchers included 231 mothers and their newborns measured at birth from the Rhea study in Crete, Greece and the Hmar study in Barcelona, Spain and 476 mothers and their children measured between 1 and 2 years from the Rhea study. They used food frequency questionnaires to assess maternal diet and estimated plasma dioxin-like activity by the Dioxin-Responsive Chemically Activated LUciferase eXpression (DR-CALUX®) and other POPs in maternal samples. “We defined a “high-fat diet” score, as a prenatal exposure estimate, that incorporated intakes of red meat, processed meat, fatty fish, seafood, eggs and high-fat dairy products during pregnancy. Increasing maternal “high-fat diet” score was related to increasing dioxin-like activity and serum concentrations of lipophilic persistent organic pollutants in maternal blood”, said Kogevinas.

An inverse dose response association was found between “high-fat diet” score and anoscrotal distance in newborn males indicating that “maternal high-fat diet may be linked to high prenatal exposure to persistent organic pollutants and endocrine disruptive effects, resulting to phenotypic alterations of the reproductive system”, concluded Kogevinas.

Referència:  Papadopoulou E, et al. Maternal diet, prenatal exposure to dioxins and other persistent organic pollutants and anogenital distance in children Science of the Total Environment. 461-462 (2013)

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