A research team led by Professor Nomiyama Tetsuo of the Koshin Unit Center (Shinshu University) in the "National Survey on Children's Health and the Environment (Eco-Children Survey)" announced the results of a study based on data from the Eco-Children Survey, which showed that PFAS (a general term for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl compounds) have some sort of correlation with blood lipids.
In recent years, the relationship between PFAS and lipid metabolism has been pointed out, but the effect on lipid metabolism in pregnant women is unknown. Therefore, in this study, we used data from 20,960 people from the Eco-Child Study, a large-scale, long-term follow-up survey of parents and children nationwide, and analyzed the relationship between maternal blood PFAS concentrations in the early stages of pregnancy and lipids (total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol) in maternal blood and umbilical cord blood.
As a result, a tendency was observed for higher concentrations of PFAS (PFOA, PFNA, PFDA, PFUnA, PFTrDA, PFOS) in maternal blood to be associated with higher total cholesterol, but no association was observed with total cholesterol in cord blood. In addition, a tendency was observed for higher concentrations of PFAS (PFDA, PFUnA, PFTrDA) in maternal blood to be associated with lower triglycerides, but higher concentrations of PFOA, PFNA, PFHxS, and PFOS in maternal blood to be associated with higher triglycerides in cord blood. On the other hand, higher concentrations of PFTrDA in maternal blood tended to be associated with lower triglycerides in cord blood. In addition, a tendency was observed for higher concentrations of PFOS in maternal blood to be associated with lower LDL cholesterol, and higher concentrations of PFOA, PFNA, PFDA, PFUnA, PFTrDA, and PFOS in maternal blood to be associated with higher HDL cholesterol in maternal blood.
These results are generally consistent with those expected from previous literature, suggesting a relationship between some PFASs in maternal blood during the first trimester of pregnancy and lipids in maternal blood and umbilical cord blood during the first trimester. In the future, it will be necessary to clarify the effects of changes in lipids due to maternal PFAS concentrations during pregnancy on the development of diseases (dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, etc.) and child growth.
