Correlation between Prenatal Exposure to Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) and Infant Birth Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis and an Experimental Study

Only a few epidemiological studies have focused on the correlation between prenatal exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and infant birth outcomes (IBO), and the results of these epidemiological studies are contradictory. The objective of this study was to assess the correlation between prenatal exposure to PBDEs (PEP) and IBO (i.e., birth weight) in an analysis of epidemiological studies and an experimental animals study. We searched databases of the medical literature (PubMed, Excerpta Medica Database, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure) for articles and pooled the results of the included epidemiological studies. In parallel, birth outcomes (i.e., birth weights of pups) were collected from female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats exposed to decabromodiphenyl ether (DecaBDE) in the diet from five weeks of age to delivery. A significant negative relationship was found between human PBDE burden and birth weight in the analysis of seven epidemiological studies based on a random-effects model (β = −50.598; 95% confidence interval (CI) −95.914, −5.282; I(2) = 11.8%; p = 0.029). In the experimental animal study, a significant decrease in birth weight in the DecaBDE-treated group was also observed (5.26 ± 0.39 vs. 5.8 ± 0.58, p = 0.0132). The results of our study contribute to increasing evidence suggesting that PEP adversely impacts IBO, especially birth weight.