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. 2009 Aug;35(6):937-42.
doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2009.04.002. Epub 2009 May 12.

Hydroxylated PCB metabolites (OH-PCBs) in archived serum from 1950-60s California mothers: a pilot study

J S Park  1 , M Petreas, B A Cohn, P M Cirillo, P Factor-Litvak
Affiliations

Hydroxylated PCB metabolites (OH-PCBs) in archived serum from 1950-60s California mothers: a pilot study

J S Park et al. Environ Int. 2009 Aug.

Abstract

We are studying participants selected from the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS), a longitudinal birth cohort of over 20,000 California pregnancies between 1959 and 1967, for associations between maternal body burden of organochlorine contaminants and thyroid function. We designed a pilot study using 30 samples selected among samples with high and low PCB concentrations to evaluate the feasibility of measuring OH-PCBs in the larger study population. GC-ECD and GC-NCI/MS were used to determine PCBs and OH-PCBs as methyl derivatives, respectively. Maternal serum levels of Sigma11PCBs and Sigma8OH-PCB metabolites varied from 0.74 to 7.99 ng/mL wet wt. with a median of 3.05 ng/mL, and from 0.12 to 0.98 ng/mL wet wt. with a median of 0.39 ng/mL, respectively. Average concentrations of Sigma8OH-PCB metabolites in the high PCB group were significantly higher than those in the low PCB group (p < 0.05). The levels of OH-PCB metabolites were dependent on PCB levels (r = 0.58, p < 0.05) but approximately an order of magnitude lower (p < 0.05). The average ratio of Sigma8OH-PCBs to Sigma11PCBs was 0.14 +/- 0.08. The primary metabolite was 4-OH-CB187 followed by 4-OH-CB107. Both of these metabolites interfere with the thyroid system in in vitro, animal, and human studies. OH-PCBs were detectable in all archived sera analyzed, supporting the feasibility to measure OH-PCB metabolites in the entire cohort.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Correlations between OH-PCBs and suggested PCB precursors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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