Prenatal Phthalates, Placenta Function and Fetal Growth

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的目标有两个方面：1)利用环境和生物监测来表征城市少数民族母亲和新生儿产前邻苯二甲酸盐暴露；2)检查暴露对胎盘功能、胎龄和胎儿生长的影响。这项研究是及时的。邻苯二甲酸盐广泛应用于消费品中，暴露无处不在。75%的美国人受到辐射；女性接受的辐射比男性高。这对怀孕有影响，因为许多邻苯二甲酸盐是内分泌干扰物，实验表明，它们可以调节胎盘中的甾体生成，下调雌二醇和睾酮水平，并对胎儿生长产生不利影响。我们在人群中的试点数据也表明，产前暴露正在降低胎龄。这项拟议的研究首次描述了城市少数民族接触邻苯二甲酸盐的特点，并评估了胎盘中的内分泌干扰及其对胎龄和胎儿生长的影响。这项研究具有成本效益，因为它将在哥伦比亚儿童环境健康中心进行的一项精心设计的前瞻性队列研究中进行。登记、收集和储存环境和生物样本、调查表和医疗记录数据的费用由现有资金支付。将通过问卷调查、个人和室内空气监测以及从母亲和新生儿收集的生物样本中邻苯二甲酸盐的测量，对300对母亲/新生儿进行产前邻苯二甲酸盐暴露的特征分析。在一个子集中重复测量将能够评估暴露水平的时间变异性。该研究将评估产前邻苯二甲酸盐、参与类固醇生成、氧化应激和胎盘异种代谢的基因表达、胎龄和婴儿出生体重、身长和头围之间的关系。这项研究汇集了来自哥伦比亚大学和哈佛大学、疾病控制中心和西南研究所的合作团队，他们在分子流行病学、接触评估和邻苯二甲酸盐对健康的影响方面具有专业知识。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goals of this study are 2-fold: 1) to characterize prenatal phthalate exposures among urban minority mothers and newborns using environmental and biologic monitoring; and 2) to examine effects of exposure on placental function, gestational age and fetal growth. The research is timely. Phthalates are widely used in consumer products and exposures are ubiquitous. 75% of the U.S. population is exposed; women receive higher exposures than men. This has implication for pregnancy as a number of phthalates are endocrine disrupters and have been shown experimentally to modulate steroidogenesis in the placenta, downregulate estradiol and testosterone levels and adversely affect fetal growth. Our pilot data in human populations also indicate that prenatal exposures are reducing gestational age. The proposed study is the first to characterize phthalate exposures specific to urban minorities and to assess endocrine disruption in the placenta and its implication for gestational age and fetal growth. The research is cost-effective in that it will be nested within a well-designed prospective cohort study being conducted by the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health. Costs of enrollment, collection and storage of environmental and biologic samples, questionnaires and medical record data are covered under the existing funding. Prenatal phthalate exposures will be characterized in 300 mother/newborn pairs using questionnaires, personal and indoor air monitoring and the measurement of phthalates in biologic samples collected from the mothers and newborns. Repeat measures in a subset will enable evaluation of temporal variability in exposure levels. The study will assess associations between prenatal phthalates, expression of genes involved in steroidogenesis, oxidative stress, and xenobiotic metabolism in the placenta, gestational age and infant birth weight, length and head circumference. The research brings together a collaborative team from Columbia and Harvard Universities, the Centers for Disease Control and Southwest Research Institute with expertise in molecular epidemiology, exposure assessment and health effects of phthalates.