Mercury and psychosocial stress exposure interact to predict maternal diurnal cortisol during pregnancy

Environmental Health

Research

Martha María Téllez-Rojo¹  Marcela Tamayo y Ortiz²  Brent A Coull³  Rosalind J Wright⁴  Hannah MC Schreier⁴  Hsiao-Hsien Hsu⁵  Chitra Amarasiriwardena⁵  Robert O Wright⁵  Lourdes Schnaas⁶ 

[1] Center for Evaluation Research and Surveys, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico;Center for Research in Nutrition and Health, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico;Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA;Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA;Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Box 1198, One Gustave L. Levy Place, 10029, New York, NY, USA;Department of Preventive Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA;Division of Research on Public Health, National Institute of Perinatology, Mexico City, Mexico;

关键词: Mercury;    Psychosocial;    Stress;    Pregnancy;    Cortisol;    HPA axis;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12940-015-0016-9

 received in 2014-10-23, accepted in 2015-03-10,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDisrupted maternal prenatal cortisol production influences offspring development. Factors influencing the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis include social (e.g., stressful life events) and physical/chemical (e.g., toxic metals) pollutants. Mercury (Hg) is a common contaminant of fish and exposure is widespread in the US. No prior study has examined the joint associations of stress and mercury with maternal cortisol profiles in pregnancy.ObjectivesTo investigate potential synergistic influences of prenatal stress and Hg exposures on diurnal cortisol in pregnant women.MethodsAnalyses included 732 women (aged 27.4 ± 5.6 years) from a Mexico City pregnancy cohort. Participants collected saliva samples on two consecutive days (mean 19.52 ± 3.00 weeks gestation) and reported life stressors over the past 6 months. Hg was assessed in toe nail clippings collected during pregnancy.ResultsThere were no main effects of Hg or psychosocial stress exposure on diurnal cortisol (ps > .20) but strong evidence of interaction effects on cortisol slope (interaction B = .006, SE = .003, p = .034) and cortisol at times 1 and 2 (interaction B = -.071, SE = .028, p = .013; B = -.078, SE = .032, p = .014). Women above the median for Hg and psychosocial stress exposure experienced a blunted morning cortisol response compared to women exposed to higher stress but lower Hg levels.ConclusionsSocial and physical environmental factors interact to alter aspects of maternal diurnal cortisol during pregnancy. Research focusing solely on either domain may miss synergistic influences with potentially important consequences to the offspring.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Schreier et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015