Exposure to ambient air pollution during pregnancy and inflammatory biomarkers in maternal and umbilical cord blood: The Healthy Start study

Background: Air pollution exposure during pregnancy has been associated with adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes. Inflammation has been proposed as a potential link. We estimated associations between air pollution exposure during pregnancy and inflammatory biomarkers in maternal and cord blood. We evaluated whether maternal inflammation was associated with infant outcomes. Methods: Among 515 mother-infant dyads in the Healthy Start study (2009-2014), trimester-long, 7- and 30-day average concentrations of particulate matter <2.5 mu m (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) during pregnancy were estimated, using inverse-distance-weighted interpolation. Inflammatory biomarkers were measured in maternal blood in mid-pregnancy (C-reactive protein [CRP], Interleukin [IL]-6, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha [TNF alpha]) and in cord blood at delivery (CRP, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 [MCP-1], and TNF alpha). We used linear regression to estimate associations between pollutants and inflammatory biomarkers and maternal inflammatory biomarkers and infant weight and body composition. Results: There were positive associations between PM2.5 during certain exposure periods and maternal IL-6 and TNF alpha. There were negative associations between recent O3 and maternal CRP, IL-6, and TNF alpha and positive associations between trimester-long O3 exposure and maternal inflammatory biomarkers, though some 95% confidence intervals included the null. Patterns were inconsistent for associations between PM2.5 and O3 and cord blood inflammatory biomarkers. No consistent associations between maternal inflammatory biomarkers and infant outcomes were identified. Conclusions: Air pollution exposure during pregnancy may impact maternal inflammation. Further investigations should examine the health consequences for women and infants of elevated inflammatory biomarkers associated with air pollution exposure during pregnancy.

Automated summary

The study found that exposure to air pollution during pregnancy may impact maternal inflammation, but there were no consistent associations identified between maternal inflammatory biomarkers and infant outcomes. Further investigations are needed to examine the health consequences for women and infants of elevated inflammatory biomarkers associated with air pollution exposure during pregnancy.