An Evaluation of Exposure to 18 Toxic and/or Essential Trace Elements Exposure in Maternal and Cord Plasma during Pregnancy at Advanced Maternal Age

Abstract

Pregnant women of advanced maternal age (AMA) are vulnerable to exposure to the surrounding environment. Assessment of trace elements in pregnant women living in specific areas is important for biomonitoring. However, exposure levels and variation patterns during pregnancy remains controversial and attracts extensive public concern. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate exposure of 18 toxic and/or essential trace elements in maternal plasma and in paired cord plasma during pregnancy at AMA. A total of 48 pregnant women of AMA were recruited in Peking University Third Hospital from 2018 to 2021. Eighteen elements found in maternal plasma during the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd trimester of pregnancy and paired cord plasma were measured by 7700x ICP-MS (Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA, USA) and Elan DRC type II ICP-MS (The Perkin-Elmer Corporation, Waltham, MA USA). Concentrations of Pb, Se, Fe, Zn, and Mo all decreased during pregnancy, while Cu increased. Interestingly, concentrations of Rb decreased initially but then increased. Elements as Al, Co, Se, Cu, and Ni showed significantly lower levels in cord than in maternal plasma, while elements as Sr, Fe, Rb, Mn and Zn displayed significantly higher levels in cord than in maternal plasma. Moreover, positively- interacted clusters were found in Ni-Co-Cu-Al-Rb-Zn and Zn-Mn-Al-Pb in maternal blood. Similar positively-interacted clusters were found in Zn-Ni-Co, Zn-Ni-Fe, Mn-Al-Pb, Fe-Pb-Mn, Fe-Ni-Cu, and Rb-Cu-Sb-Fe-Mn in cord plasma. Furthermore, correlations between paired maternal and cord blood samples for As, Sr, and Mo were statistically significant, indicating that the fetus burden may reflect maternal exposure to some extent. Admittedly, levels of toxic and essential elements in our cohort study were comparatively lower than those in the scientific literature.

A Murine Model of Maternal Micronutrient Deficiencies and Gut Inflammatory Host-microbe Interactions in the Offspring

“… 39 Micronutrients interact to influence absorption and bioavailability of each other, and hence, co-existing and increased deficiencies in minerals and vitamins are likely. 1 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 However, previous maternal animal models involving micronutrients are based on deficiency/supplementation of only 1 or 2 micronutrient(s) and are unable to interrogate the deleterious outcomes of multiple co-existing MNDs. A recent maternal model of single MND shows that gestational vitamin C deficiency induces aberrant DNA methylation in fetal germ-cell development, resulting in lower oocyte numbers and reduced fecundity rate in the female offspring.…”

Prenatal Exposure to Metal Mixture and Birth Weight; a Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression Analysis of Two Cohort Studies in Japan and Iran

“…Pearson's and linear regression analyses showed a signi cant negative correlation between Rb and birth weight. Although the reproductive system toxicities of Rb have not been su ciently studied, a few reports have indicated pregnancy concentration increasing [42], fetal growth decreasing [43], and increasing the risk of pregnancy induced-hypertension [44] in Rb exposure groups.…”

A preliminary study to evaluate the exposure of human fetus to heavy metals in the umbilical cord blood in Syria

“…Evaluating the exposure of the pregnant mother and fetus to HM is of interest to many researchers in various countries around the world, as many studies have been conducted on the detection and calibration of HM in fetal biological matrices such as the placenta [5, 6, 7, 8], fetal membranes [8], umbilical cord tissues [5, 8, 9], umbilical cord blood (UCB) [6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15], amniotic fluid [16, 17, 18], neonatal hair [19, 20, 21], neonatal urine [10] and meconium [22].…”