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A cohort study of in utero polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposures in relation to secondary sex ratio

BACKGROUND: Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are ubiquitous industrial chemicals that persist in the environment and in human fatty tissue. PCBs are related to a class of compounds known as dioxins, specifically 2,3,7,8-TCDD (tetrachloro-dibenzodioxin), which has been implicated as a cause of altere...

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Autores principales: Hertz-Picciotto, Irva, Jusko, Todd A, Willman, Eric J, Baker, Rebecca J, Keller, Jean A, Teplin, Stuart W, Charles, M Judith
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2483969/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18627595
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-7-37
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author Hertz-Picciotto, Irva
Jusko, Todd A
Willman, Eric J
Baker, Rebecca J
Keller, Jean A
Teplin, Stuart W
Charles, M Judith
author_facet Hertz-Picciotto, Irva
Jusko, Todd A
Willman, Eric J
Baker, Rebecca J
Keller, Jean A
Teplin, Stuart W
Charles, M Judith
author_sort Hertz-Picciotto, Irva
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are ubiquitous industrial chemicals that persist in the environment and in human fatty tissue. PCBs are related to a class of compounds known as dioxins, specifically 2,3,7,8-TCDD (tetrachloro-dibenzodioxin), which has been implicated as a cause of altered sex ratio, especially in relation to paternal exposures. METHODS: In the 1960's, serum specimens were collected from pregnant women participating in the Child Health and Development Study in the San Francisco Bay Area. The women were interviewed and their serum samples stored at -20°C. For this study, samples were thawed and a total of eleven PCBs were determined in 399 specimens. Secondary sex ratio, or sex ratio at birth, was evaluated as a function of maternal serum concentrations using log-binomial and logistic regression, controlling for hormonally active medications taken during pregnancy. RESULTS: The relative risk of a male birth decreased by 33% comparing women at the 90(th )percentile of total PCBs with women at the 10(th )percentile (RR = 0.67; 95% CI, 0.48–0.94; p = 0.02), or by approximately 7% for each 1 μg/L increase in total PCB concentration. Although some congener-specific associations with sex ratio were only marginally statistically significant, all nine PCB congeners with < 30% of samples below the LOQ showed the same direction of association, an improbable finding under the null hypothesis. CONCLUSION: Maternal exposure to PCBs may be detrimental to the success of male sperm or to the survival of male embryos. Findings could be due to contaminants, metabolites or PCBs themselves.
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spelling pubmed-24839692008-07-26 A cohort study of in utero polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposures in relation to secondary sex ratio Hertz-Picciotto, Irva Jusko, Todd A Willman, Eric J Baker, Rebecca J Keller, Jean A Teplin, Stuart W Charles, M Judith Environ Health Research BACKGROUND: Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are ubiquitous industrial chemicals that persist in the environment and in human fatty tissue. PCBs are related to a class of compounds known as dioxins, specifically 2,3,7,8-TCDD (tetrachloro-dibenzodioxin), which has been implicated as a cause of altered sex ratio, especially in relation to paternal exposures. METHODS: In the 1960's, serum specimens were collected from pregnant women participating in the Child Health and Development Study in the San Francisco Bay Area. The women were interviewed and their serum samples stored at -20°C. For this study, samples were thawed and a total of eleven PCBs were determined in 399 specimens. Secondary sex ratio, or sex ratio at birth, was evaluated as a function of maternal serum concentrations using log-binomial and logistic regression, controlling for hormonally active medications taken during pregnancy. RESULTS: The relative risk of a male birth decreased by 33% comparing women at the 90(th )percentile of total PCBs with women at the 10(th )percentile (RR = 0.67; 95% CI, 0.48–0.94; p = 0.02), or by approximately 7% for each 1 μg/L increase in total PCB concentration. Although some congener-specific associations with sex ratio were only marginally statistically significant, all nine PCB congeners with < 30% of samples below the LOQ showed the same direction of association, an improbable finding under the null hypothesis. CONCLUSION: Maternal exposure to PCBs may be detrimental to the success of male sperm or to the survival of male embryos. Findings could be due to contaminants, metabolites or PCBs themselves. BioMed Central 2008-07-15 /pmc/articles/PMC2483969/ /pubmed/18627595 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-7-37 Text en Copyright © 2008 Hertz-Picciotto et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Hertz-Picciotto, Irva
Jusko, Todd A
Willman, Eric J
Baker, Rebecca J
Keller, Jean A
Teplin, Stuart W
Charles, M Judith
A cohort study of in utero polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposures in relation to secondary sex ratio
title A cohort study of in utero polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposures in relation to secondary sex ratio
title_full A cohort study of in utero polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposures in relation to secondary sex ratio
title_fullStr A cohort study of in utero polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposures in relation to secondary sex ratio
title_full_unstemmed A cohort study of in utero polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposures in relation to secondary sex ratio
title_short A cohort study of in utero polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposures in relation to secondary sex ratio
title_sort cohort study of in utero polychlorinated biphenyl (pcb) exposures in relation to secondary sex ratio
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2483969/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18627595
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-7-37
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