Journal
TOXICOLOGY
Volume 257, Issue 1-2, Pages 64-69Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.tox.2008.12.009
Keywords
Cadmium; Iron; Manganese; Micronutrients; Breast milk
Categories
Funding
- Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) [SWE-2003-021A]
- PHIME [FOOD-CT-2006-016253]
- UNICEF, Sida
- UK Medical Research Council
- Swedish Research Council
- Department for International Development (DFID)
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B)
- Global Health Research Fund-Japan
- Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative
- Uppsala University
- United States Agency for International Development
- Australian International Development Agency
- governments of Bangladesh, Japan and the Netherlands
- Canadian International Development Agency
- Sida, Swiss Development Cooperation
- DFID, United Kingdom
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Although the concentrations of the toxic metal cadmium in breast milk are generally low (< 1 mu g/L), experimental studies indicated neurobehavioral and endocrine effects in the suckling offspring. The aim of the present study was to elucidate how cadmium is transported to breast milk by assessing interactions with essential micronutrients. The study is nested into a food and micronutrient supplementation trial conducted among pregnant women in Matlab, a rural area in Bangladesh, where malnutrition is prevalent and the cadmium exposure is relatively high. We measured cadmium in breast milk (BM-Cd; median 0.14 mu g/kg; range < 0.050-1.0 mu g/kg), in erythrocytes (Ery-Cd; median 1.5 mu g/kg; range 0.46-4.8 mu g/kg) and in urine (U-Cd; median 0.63 mu g/L; range 0.050-4.5 mu g/L), using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). We found a significant positive association between Ery-Cd and BM-Cd and a breast milk-plasma ratio of similar to 3-4, indicating no barrier against cadmium transport from plasma to breast milk. BM-Cd was positively associated with manganese (r(s) = 0.56; p < 0.01) and iron (r(s) = 0.55: p < 0.01) in breast milk, but not with plasma ferritin. On the other hand, BM-Cd was negatively associated with BM-Ca (r(s) = -0.17; p = 0.05), indicating that cadmium inhibits the transport of calcium to breast milk. In conclusion, the present study may indicate that cadmium shares common transporters with iron and manganese for transfer to breast milk, but inhibits secretion of calcium to breast milk. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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