Determination of organic pollutants in meconium and its relationship with fetal growth. Case control study in Northwestern Spain

Abstract

Objectives Antenatal exposure to organic pollutants is a leading public health problem. Meconium is a unique matrix to perform prenatal studies because it enables us to retrospectively evaluate fetal exposure accumulated during the second and third trimester. The aim of the present study was to evaluate associations between organic pollutant levels in meconium and birth weight in NW Spain. Methods In this study, we quantify the concentrations of 50 organic pollutants together with the total values of the most important chemical groups in meconium using gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. Results Organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers were detected with the highest levels in meconium from small for gestational age newborns. It was estimated that several congeners were statistically significant (p<0.05). However, organophosphorus pesticides attained higher concentrations in newborns with an appropriate weight. Conclusions The occurrence of transplacental transfer can be confirmed. Prenatal exposure to organic pollutants was associated with a decrease in birth weight and, therefore, organic pollutants could have an impact on fetal growth. Nevertheless, these results need validation in larger sample sized studies.

Development of a Methodology for Determination of Dioxins and Dioxin-like PCBs in Meconium by Gas Chromatography Coupled to High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (GC-HRMS)

“…The average mean of PCB-118 in Jeong et al, 2016 [ 16 ] and Veyhe et al, 2013 [ 15 ] were described in the same units, with the results obtained in this study (average of 27.4 pg g −1 ww) being higher than in Korea (1.66 pg g −1 ww) [ 16 ] and lower than in Norway (49 pg g −1 ww) [ 15 ]. The obtained results in other studies (Morokuma et al, 2017 [ 7 ], Alvarez-Silvares et al, 2021 [ 18 ], and T. Fernandez-Cruz et al, 2020 [ 2 ]) were expressed in pg g −1 lipid weight (lw), so they cannot be properly compared with the obtained results due to the low fat percentage obtained, as it could overestimate the concentration of the assessed compounds.…”

“…Taking into account the described literature, dioxin and dl-PCB extraction from meconium is not standardized, and it has been performed using several techniques, such as a vortex [ 14 ], an ultrasonic bath [ 15 ], Soxhlet extraction [ 16 , 17 ], or selective pressurized liquid extraction (SPLE) [ 2 , 18 ], with different solvents, such as hexane, dichloromethane, acetonitrile, and acetone and different mixtures of them.…”

“…However, this study does not analyse all the congeners described by the Stockholm Convention [ 7 ]. Other studies in the literature describe the analysis of dl-PCB congeners but none of them combines this with PCDD/Fs [ 2 , 17 , 18 ]. As far as we know, no work has been published related to the analysis of the 17 dioxin congeners and the 12 dl-PCBs cited in the Stockholm Convention in meconium samples by GC-HRMS.…”

Associations Between Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers Concentrations in Human Placenta and Small for Gestational Age in Southwest China

“…The results indicated that increased concentrations of higher brominated BDEs in maternal serum (OR: 1.010, 95% CI: 1.003–1.018), and low-to moderately brominated BDEs in colostrum (OR: 1.004, 95% CI:1.000–1.009) were associated with increased risk of FGR, which showed an exposure-response relationship ( 11 ). In Northwestern Spain, Esther Álvarez-Silvares et al quantified the concentrations of 50 organic pollutants in meconium from 10 SGA and 40 control newborns, and found that the concentration of BDE-154 in meconium was significantly higher in the SGA group ( P = 0.049) ( 12 ). However, in a New York population-based longitudinal study of 2,065 singleton infants between 2008 and 2010, higher concentrations of BDE-47 in newborn dried blood spots samples were not associated with SGA (OR: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.98–1.00) after adjustment for confounders ( 13 ).…”

“…To our knowledge, only a few epidemiological studies have looked at the association of PBDEs and SGA. Most of them reported a negative correlation between PBDEs levels detected in maternal serum ( 9 ), umbilical cord blood ( 10 ), colostrum ( 11 ), meconium ( 12 ) and the risk of SGA. A population-based longitudinal study in New York found no association between PBDEs level in newborn dried blood spots samples and SGA ( 13 ).…”