Prenatal Phthalates, Placenta Function and Fetal Growth

描述(由申请人提供)：这项研究的目标有两个：1)通过环境和生物监测，确定城市少数民族母亲和新生儿产前邻苯二甲酸盐暴露的特征；2)检查暴露对胎盘功能、胎龄和胎儿生长的影响。这项研究来得正是时候。邻苯二甲酸酯被广泛用于消费品中，接触到邻苯二甲酸酯的情况随处可见。75%的美国人口受到辐射；女性受到的辐射比男性更高。这对怀孕有一定的影响，因为一些邻苯二甲酸酯是内分泌干扰物，实验表明它可以调节胎盘中类固醇的生成，下调雌二醇和睾酮水平，并对胎儿生长产生不利影响。我们在人类人群中的试验数据还表明，产前暴露正在降低孕龄。这项拟议的研究首次表征了城市少数民族特定的邻苯二甲酸盐暴露，并评估了胎盘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，因为它将嵌套在哥伦比亚儿童环境健康中心正在进行的一项精心设计的前瞻性队列研究中。现有经费包括登记、收集和储存环境和生物样本、问卷和病历数据的费用。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身上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。子集中的重复测量将能够评估暴露水平的时间变异性。这项研究将评估产前邻苯二甲酸酯、胎盘中参与类固醇生成、氧化应激和异物代谢的基因表达、胎龄与婴儿出生体重、身长和头围之间的关系。这项研究汇集了一个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、邻苯二甲酸盐暴露评估和健康影响方面拥有专业知识。

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.