Endocrinology

Biography

Biography: Marijke de Cock

Abstract

Exposure to environmental chemicals starts already in the prenatal period, as chemicals present in the body of the mother may pass the placenta. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are of particular concern as hormones are involved in many processes during development. We examined if there were associations between early life exposure to EDCs and growth in early childhood (birth weight, and growth during the first year after birth), as well as with thyroxine (T4) levels at birth, in a newly recruited prospective mother-child cohort in the Netherlands. High perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and high dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) exposure were associated with higher birth weight, although for DDE this was only observed in male children. For mono(2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl)phthalate (MECPP) on the other hand, low exposures in particular were associated with higher birth weights in girls. Low exposure to MECPP was furthermore associated with a higher BMI during the first year, both in boys and in girls. Similar effects were observed for low mono(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl)phthalate (MEOHP) exposure in boys. Moreover, for most compounds boys showed an increase in BMI between six and eleven months of age. Exposure levels of DDE which were associated with both a relatively high birth weight and BMI later in life, also showed a relatively high T4 level, independent of gender. Furthermore exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was positively associated with T4 levels in girls. We conclude that for various EDCs effects on all studied health outcomes were apparent, and that associations were non-monotonic as well as gender-specific. Follow-up is required to assess long-term effects and to face the challenge of mixture-effects.