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Revisiting mobilisation of skeletal lead during pregnancy based on monthly sampling and cord/maternal blood lead relationships confirm placental transfer of lead

  • Inorganic Compounds
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Abstract

Lead (Pb) can be released from the maternal skeleton during pregnancy and lactation and transferred to the infant. Most support for this hypothesis comes from blood Pb (PbB) studies involving limited sampling during pregnancy, the maximum usually being five samplings, including at delivery. We provide longitudinal data for PbB concentrations and Pb isotopic ratios for three cohorts of pregnant females (n = 31), two of which are based on monthly sampling and the other on quarterly sampling. We also provide data for samples collected post-partum. The data are compared with changes observed in a matched, by country and age, non-pregnant control cohort (n = 5). The monthly data illustrate the variability between subjects, which is also apparent when the data are compared on a trimester basis. Mixed model analyses showed that, in the third trimester, the mean PbB level was significantly lower for women (n = 10) who took a calcium (Ca) supplement (PbB 1.6 µg/dL) than those whose Ca intake was low (low-Ca cohort; n = 15; PbB 2.5 µg/dL) because low Ca means more mobilisation is required for homoeostasis so that more Pb was mobilised from the skeleton. For women who took the supplement, post-partum PbB levels were significantly higher than those in the other periods (2.7 vs 1.4–1.6 µg/dL). For women in the low-Ca cohort, PbB levels were higher at post-partum than in pre-pregnancy and in the first and second trimesters (3.1 vs 1.8 µg/dL), while the levels in the third trimester were higher than those in the first and second trimesters. Importantly, the increase in PbB during gestation was delayed until the third trimester in the Ca-supplemented cohort compared with the low-Ca cohort. Regression analysis showed that the changes over trimester were very similar for PbB and the 206Pb/204Pb ratio providing convincing evidence for extra mobilisation of Pb from the maternal skeleton during pregnancy and lactation. Isotopic ratios in the cord blood samples were similar to those in the maternal blood samples taken prior to parturition with an R 2 0.94 for the migrant subjects and R 2 0.74 for Australian subjects for 206Pb/204Pb ratios, supporting the concept of placental transfer of mobilised skeletal stores of Pb.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank: Massimo Chiaradia, Jaqueline Palmer, Matthew James, Nicole Pattison, and Laura Gomez for technical assistance; the participants in this study; Bill Jameson (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIEHS) and Beth Ragan (NIEHS) and Paul Mushak for their support and encouragement over many years. This research was largely funded from NIEHS through NO1-ES0252. We also thank the reviewers for their constructive and incisive comments and suggestions.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical statement

Approval has been given by Ethics Committees of St. Vincent's Hospital of Sydney, the University of Adelaide in South Australia, Macquarie University and the United States National Institutes of Health.

Informed consent

All persons have given their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science and Engineering, Graduate School of the Environment, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia

    Brian Gulson & Karen Mizon

  2. Energy Flagship, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Sydney, NSW, 1670, Australia

    Brian Gulson & Michael Korsch

  3. Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia

    Alan Taylor

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  1. Brian Gulson
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  2. Karen Mizon
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  4. Alan Taylor
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brian Gulson.

Additional information

This paper is dedicated to the memory of three wonderful people, Dr. Mahaffey, who was our first US National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences project officer for several years, Professor Tony McMichael, who led the first stage of the contract, and Mary Salter, who was our phlebotomist for 13 years.

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Gulson, B., Mizon, K., Korsch, M. et al. Revisiting mobilisation of skeletal lead during pregnancy based on monthly sampling and cord/maternal blood lead relationships confirm placental transfer of lead. Arch Toxicol 90, 805–816 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-015-1515-8

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