Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Feb 10;650(Pt 1):1131-1140.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.08.356. Epub 2018 Aug 29.

Associations between maternal plasma measurements of inflammatory markers and urinary levels of phenols and parabens during pregnancy: A repeated measures study

Max T Aung  1 , Kelly K Ferguson  2 , David E Cantonwine  3 , Kelly M Bakulski  4 , Bhramar Mukherjee  5 , Rita Loch-Caruso  1 , Thomas F McElrath  3 , John D Meeker  6
Affiliations

Associations between maternal plasma measurements of inflammatory markers and urinary levels of phenols and parabens during pregnancy: A repeated measures study

Max T Aung et al. Sci Total Environ. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: Maternal immune system regulation is critical for maintenance of a healthy pregnancy and fetal development. Exposure to phenols and parabens is widespread, and may be linked to systemic inflammation and alteration of circulating immunological biomarkers.

Objective: We sought to characterize associations between repeated measures of individual urinary phenols, parabens and plasma inflammatory markers across pregnancy.

Methods: In the LIFECODES prospective birth cohort, we conducted a nested preterm birth case-control study, including 130 cases and 352 controls. In urine samples collected from each participant at up to four study visits during pregnancy, we measured concentrations of six phenols and four parabens, as well as five plasma inflammatory markers. We used multivariable linear mixed models to analyze repeated measures of exposures on inflammatory markers. We created and applied inverse probability weights to account for the sampling approach.

Results: We observed bidirectional associations between select phenols and parabens and inflammatory markers. An interquartile range increase in triclosan (55.2 ng/mL) was associated with a 12.5% (95% CI: 3.67, 22.0) increase in C-reactive protein, a 7.95% (95% CI: 1.95, 14.3) increase in interleukin 10, and a 7.93% (95% CI: 3.82, 12,2) increase in tumor necrosis factor-α. Additionally, an interquartile range increase in 2,5-dichlorophenol (11.0 ng/mL) was associated with a 10% increase in C-reactive protein (95% CI: 1.92, 18.7). Conversely, an interquartile range increase in ethyl paraben (10.4 ng/mL) was associated with a 7.7% decrease in interleukin‑1β (95% CI: -14.1, -0.86).

Conclusions: Our findings can be organized into two thematic frameworks, one where concentrations of urinary phenols and parabens during pregnancy reflected a pro-inflammatory relationship with immunological biomarkers, and the other contrary theme - an anti-inflammatory relationship. These findings have implications for fetal development and reproductive outcomes, and emphasize the need for further research on immunological mechanisms of phenol and paraben action during pregnancy.

Keywords: Chlorinated phenols; Cytokines; Reproductive immunology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare they have no financial or potential competing interests.

References

    1. Anderson SE, Franko J, Kashon ML, Anderson KL, Hubbs AF, Lukomska E, Meade BJ, 2012. Exposure to Triclosan Augments the Allergic Response to Ovalbumin in a Mouse Model of Asthma. Toxicological Sciences 132, 96–106. doi:10.1093/toxsci/kfs328 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Anderson SE, Meade BJ, Long CM, Lukomska E, Marshall NB, 2015. Investigations of immunotoxicity and allergic potential induced by topical application of triclosan in mice. Journal of Immunotoxicology 13, 165–172. doi:10.3109/1547691X.2015.1029146 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Andra SS, Charisiadis P, Arora M, van Vliet-Ostaptchouk JV, Makris KC, 2015. Biomonitoring of human exposures to chlorinated derivatives and structural analogs of bisphenol A. Environment International 85, 352–379. doi:10.1016/j.envint.2015.09.011 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Benjamini Y, Hochberg Y, 1995. Controlling the False Discovery Rate: A Practical and Powerful Approach to Multiple Testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series B (Methodological) 57, 289–300.
    1. Boyle AK, Rinaldi SF, Norman JE, Stock SJ, 2017. Preterm birth: Inflammation, fetal injury and treatment strategies. Journal of Reproductive Immunology 119, 62–66. doi:10.1016/j.jri.2016.11.008 - DOI - PubMed