title: Prenatal low-level mercury exposure and infant neurodevelopment at 12 months in rural northern China.
abstract: Although MeHg is a confirmed neurotoxin at sufficiently high dosages, the effect of prenatal low-level Hg exposure on infant neurodevelopment is still unknown. Four hundred ten mother-infant pairs were recruited in rural northern China from September 2010 to September 2012. We investigated maternal diet during pregnancy, collected maternal and umbilical blood samples, and tested infant neurodevelopment using Gesell developmental schedules (GDS) at the age of 1 year old. The geometric means (GM) of Hg exposure in maternal and umbilical blood were 0.72 and 1.2 μg/L, respectively. Positive associations between Hg levels and the frequency of total fish consumption were found (Spearman's correlation, r = 0.09 for maternal Hg, r = 0.14 for umbilical Hg, p < 0.01). After adjusting for confounding factors, we found a log-unit increase in umbilical blood Hg levels was associated with a 4.22-point (95 % confidence interval (95 %CI) 0.77 to 7.67) increase in the adaptive domain and a 4.06-point (95 %CI 0.51 to 7.62) increase in the social domain. No significant association has been found between other domains and Hg levels in our study. In further analysis, we noticed the positive correlation between the developmental quotient (DQ) scores of the adaptive domain and frequencies of total fish consumption (p = 0.04). Our results failed to indicate the adverse effects between prenatal Hg exposure and infant neurodevelopment. However, given the low-level Hg exposure and its predominant source, the potential positive associations in our study may be attributed to the beneficial nutrients of fish consumption.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 280 South Chongqing Road, 200025, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 280 South Chongqing Road, 200025, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Limei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 280 South Chongqing Road, 200025, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Caifeng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 280 South Chongqing Road, 200025, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yijun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 280 South Chongqing Road, 200025, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 280 South Chongqing Road, 200025, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yiwen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 280 South Chongqing Road, 200025, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 280 South Chongqing Road, 200025, Shanghai, China. Gaoyu999@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 280 South Chongqing Road, 200025, Shanghai, China. tianmiejp@sjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tian
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002657:Child Development; D002681:China; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000737:chemistry*; D005399:Fishes; D005506:Food Contamination; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D018811:Maternal Exposure; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange; D008628:Mercury / Q000097:blood*; D009420:Nervous System / Q000187:drug effects; D011247:Pregnancy; D012424:Rural Population
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D008628:Mercury
keywords: China; Fish consumption; Infant; Mercury exposure; Neurodevelopment; Prenatal