Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY
Volume 36, Issue 3, Pages 1266-1275Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.etap.2013.10.006
Keywords
Arsenic; Birth weight; Methylation ratio; Romania; Biomarker
Funding
- Teresa Heinz Scholars for Environmental Research Fellowship
- Wilbur G. Downs International Health Student Travel Fellowship
- Jan Stolwijk Fellowship
- Yale School of Medicine Office of Student Research
- Environmental Health Centre, and Babes-Bolyai University
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) [L30 ES019436, L30CA124219]
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Inorganic arsenic (iAs) exposure is detrimental to birth outcome. We lack information regarding the potential for iAs metabolism to affect fetal growth. Our pilot study evaluated postpartum Romanian women with known birth weight outcome for differences in iAs metabolism. Subjects were chronically exposed to low-to-moderate drinking water iAs. We analyzed well water, arsenic metabolites in urine, and toenail arsenic. Urine iAs and metabolites, toenail iAs, and secondary methylation efficiency increased as an effect of exposure (p <0.001). Urine iAs and metabolites showed a significant interaction effect between exposure and birth weight. Moderately exposed women with low compared to normal birth weight outcome had greater metabolite excretion (p <0.03); 67% with low compared to 10% with normal birth weight outcome presented urine iAs >9 mu g/L (p =0.019). Metabolic partitioning of iAs toward excretion may impair fetal growth. Prospective studies on iAs excretion before and during pregnancy may provide a biomarker for poor fetal growth risk. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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