Associations between prenatal multiple plasma metal exposure and newborn telomere length: Effect modification by maternal age and infant sex

Exposure to metals during pregnancy may affect maternal and infant health. However, studies on the combined effects of metals on the telomere length (TL) of newborns are limited. A prospective cohort study was conducted among 1313 mother-newborn pairs in the Guangxi Zhuang Birth Cohort. The concentrations of metals in maternal plasma during the first trimester were measured using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. We explored the associations between nine plasma metals and newborn TL using generalized linear models (GLMs), principal component analysis (PCA), quantile g-computation (qgcomp), and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR). The GLMs revealed the inverse association between plasma arsenic (percent change,-5.56%; 95% CI:-7.69%,-3.38%) and barium concentrations (-9.84%; 95% CI:-13.81%,-5.68%) and newborn TL. Lead levels were related to significant decreases in newborn TL only in females. The PCA revealed a negative association between the PC3 and newborn TL (-4.52%; 95% CI:-6.34%,-2.68%). In the BKMR, the joint effect of metals was negatively associated with newborn TL. Qgcomp indicated that each one-tertile in-crease in metal mixture levels was associated with shorter newborn TL (-9.39%; 95% CI:-14.32%,-4.18%). The single and joint effects of multiple metals were more pronounced among pregnant women carrying female fe-tuses and among pregnant women <28 years of age. The finding suggests that prenatal exposure to arsenic, barium, antimony, and lead and mixed metals may shorten newborn TLs. The relationship between metal ex-posures and newborn TL may exhibit heterogeneities according to infant sex and maternal age.

Automated summary

Exposure to metals during pregnancy, especially arsenic, barium, antimony, and lead, may negatively affect the telomere length of newborns. The effects may vary according to infant sex and maternal age.