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Exposure to phthalates in early pregnancy and the risk of fetal growth restriction: a nested case–control study in a Zhuang Chinese population

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Abstract

Phthalates (PAEs) are common endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that disrupt fetal development. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of single and coexposure to phthalates in early pregnancy on fetal growth restriction (FGR) by a nested case–control study based on the Guangxi Zhuang Birth Cohort (GZBC). Maternal serum concentrations of seven phthalates in 97 neonates with FGR and 291 matched controls were detected through gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The associations between phthalates and FGR were analyzed using multiple logistic regression, weight quantile sum (WQS) regression, and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models. We found that exposures to butyl-benzyl phthalate (BBP, ORadj = 1.849, 95% CI: 1.080–3.177, Padj = 0.025, Ptrend = 0.046), di (2-ethyl-hexyl) phthalate (DEHP, ORadj = 3.893, 95% CI: 1.305–11.910, Padj = 0.015, Ptrend = 0.098) and dimethyl phthalate (DMP, ORadj = 1.722, 95% CI: 1.089–2.725, Padj = 0.020, Ptrend = 0.002) were significantly positively associated with the risk of FGR, while mono-butyl phthalate (MBP) showed a significant negative association with FGR (ORhigh = 0.192, 95% CI: 0.036–0.795, Padj = 0.033, Ptrend = 0.035) only among girls. The WQS model identified that BBP, di(2-ethyl)phthalate (DEP), DMP, DEHP, di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), and MBP were highly weighted in the association with FGR. The BKMR model supported the positive association between joint exposure to phthalates and the risk of FGR and identified no significant interaction between the seven phthalates. Overall, maternal exposure to BBP, DEHP, and DMP may cause adverse effects on FGR, especially with combined effects.

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Data availability

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank all the participants and all staffs for their supports and cooperation. We also appreciate the Guangxi Colleges and Universities Key Laboratory of Prevention and Control of Highly Prevalent Diseases, and Academician Dongxin Lin workstation for providing the experimental environment.

Funding

This work was supported by the Guangxi Key Research Program (Grant number AB17195012) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number 81860587).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China

    Xiaojing Guo, Bihu Liu, Peng Tang, Runfeng Liu, Li Wu & Xiaoqiang Qiu

  2. Department of Teaching and Research, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China

    Yonghong Sheng

  3. Department of Microbiology, School of Basic Medicine, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China

    Jiehua Chen

  4. Department of Sanitary Chemistry, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China

    Dongping Huang

  5. Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China

    Shun Liu

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  1. Xiaojing Guo
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  3. Bihu Liu
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  4. Peng Tang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Xiaojing Guo: Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing- original draft, Visualization. Yonghong Sheng: Methodology, Investigation, Data curation, Validation. Bihu Liu: Methodology, Validation, Investigation. Peng Tang: Validation, Investigation. Runfeng Liu: Validation, Investigation. Li Wu: Investigation. Jiehua Chen: Investigation. Dongping Huang: Methodology, Writing—review & editing, Supervision. Shun Liu: Methodology, Writing—review & editing, Supervision. Xiaoqiang Qiu: Project administration, Resources, Data curation, Writing—review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaoqiang Qiu.

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All the participants had provided written consents. This project was approved by the ethics committee of Guangxi Medical University (No. 20140305–001).

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Guo, X., Sheng, Y., Liu, B. et al. Exposure to phthalates in early pregnancy and the risk of fetal growth restriction: a nested case–control study in a Zhuang Chinese population. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 57318–57329 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19919-z

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