Association between the Concentrations of Metallic Elements in Maternal Blood during Pregnancy and Prevalence of Abdominal Congenital Malformations: The Japan Environment and Children’s Study

Chihiro Miyashita, Yasuaki Saijo, Yoshiya Ito, Atsuko Ikeda-Araki, Sachiko Itoh, Keiko Yamazaki, Sumitaka Kobayashi, Yu Ait Bamai, Hideyuki Masuda, Naomi Tamura, Mariko Itoh, Takeshi Yamaguchi, Shin Yamazaki, Reiko Kishi and The Japan Environment and Children’s Study Group
Additional contact information
Chihiro Miyashita: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, North-12, West-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Yasuaki Saijo: Department of Social Medicine, Asahikawa Medical University, Midorigaoka-higashi 2-1-1-1, Asahikawa 078-8510, Japan
Yoshiya Ito: Faculty of Clinical Medicine, Japanese Red Cross Hokkaido College of Nursing, 664-1 Akebono-cho, Kitami 090-0011, Japan
Atsuko Ikeda-Araki: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, North-12, West-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Sachiko Itoh: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, North-12, West-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Keiko Yamazaki: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, North-12, West-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Sumitaka Kobayashi: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, North-12, West-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Yu Ait Bamai: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, North-12, West-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Hideyuki Masuda: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, North-12, West-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Naomi Tamura: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, North-12, West-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Mariko Itoh: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, North-12, West-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Takeshi Yamaguchi: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, North-12, West-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
Shin Yamazaki: National Center for the Japan Environment and Children’s Study, National Institute for Environmental Sciences, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba 305-8506, Japan
Reiko Kishi: Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, North-12, West-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan
The Japan Environment and Children’s Study Group: The complete membership of the author groups can be found in the Appendix A.

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 19, 1-13

Abstract: Abdominal congenital malformations are responsible for early mortality, inadequate nutrient intake, and infant biological dysfunction. Exposure to metallic elements in utero is reported to be toxic and negatively impacts ontogeny. However, no prior study has sufficiently evaluated the effects of exposure to metallic elements in utero on abdominal congenital malformations. The aim of the present study was to evaluate associations between metallic elements detected in maternal blood during pregnancy and congenital abdominal malformations. Data from participants in the Japan Environment and Children’s Study was used in the present study, and contained information on singleton and live birth infants without congenital abnormalities (control: n = 89,134) and abdominal malformations (case: n = 139). Heavy metals such as mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and trace elements of manganese (Mn) and selenium (Se) were detected in maternal serum samples during mid- and late-gestation. Infant congenital abnormalities were identified from delivery records at birth or one month after birth by medical doctors. In a multivariate analysis adjusted to account for potential confounders, quartiles of heavy metals and trace elements present in maternal blood were not statistically correlated to the prevalence of abdominal congenital malformations at birth. This study is the first to reveal the absence of significant associations between exposure levels to maternal heavy metals and trace elements in utero and the prevalence of abdominal congenital malformations in a large cohort of the Japanese population. Further studies are necessary to investigate the impact of exposure to heavy metals and trace elements via maternal blood in offspring after birth.

Keywords: metallic elements; abdominal congenital malformations; prenatal exposure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/10103/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/10103/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:19:p:10103-:d:643415

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().