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Gender-specific effects of prenatal mixed exposure to serum phthalates on neurodevelopment of children aged 2–3 years:the Guangxi Birth Cohort Study

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Abstract

Phthalates have been shown to have adverse effects on neurodevelopment, which may be gender-specific. However, the association between prenatal mixed exposure to phthalates and children’s neurodevelopment remains inconsistent. We measured 15 prenatal serum phthalate levels and evaluated children’s neurodevelopmental indicators using Gesell Developmental Schedule (GDS) (n = 750). Generalized linear regression was fitted to examine the association. Among boys, mono-2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl phthalate (MEHHP) had adverse effects on gross motor [odds ratio (OR): 7.38, 95% confidence interval (CI):1.42, 38.46]. For gross motor in boys, joint effect was discovered between mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP) and MEHHP. Moreover, synergistic effects were found for MEHP with vanadium and cadmium, and antagonistic effects for MEHP with magnesium, calcium, titanium, iron, copper, selenium, rubidium, and strontium. We did not find statistically significant relationships in girls. In the 1st trimester, adverse effects were identified between mono-2-ethyl-5-oxoyhexyl phthalate (MEOHP) and adaptation (P = 0.024), and monomethyl phthalate (MMP) with social area (P = 0.017). In the 2nd trimester, MEHHP had adverse effects on social area (P = 0.035). In summary, we found boys may be more vulnerable to the neurotoxicity than girls in gross motor, and we also discovered the detrimental effects of phthalates on children’s neurodevelopment in the 1st and 2nd trimesters. Therefore, the supplementation of appropriate elements in the 1st and 2nd trimesters may help reduce the adverse effects of phthalates on children’s neurodevelopment, especially among boys.

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Data availability

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

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all participants who volunteered to take part in this study, and all researchers involved in the project.

Funding

This work was supported by National Key R&D Program of China (Grant number [2020YFE0201600]), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant numbers [82073504] and [82160604]), and Guangxi science and technology project (Grant number [GKG1598011-3]).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Yuan Zheng, Longman Li and Hong Cheng contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Genomic and Personalized Medicine, Guangxi Key Laboratory for Genomic and Personalized Medicine, Guangxi Collaborative Innovation Center for Genomic and Personalized Medicine, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, 530021, Guangxi, China

    Yuan Zheng, Longman Li, Hong Cheng, Shengzhu Huang, Xiuming Feng, Lulu Huang, Luyun Wei, Dehao Cao, Zengnan Mo & Xiaobo Yang

  2. Department of Occupational Health and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, 530021, Guangxi, China

    Yuan Zheng, Longman Li, Hong Cheng, Xiuming Feng, Fei Wang & Xiaobo Yang

  3. Department of Medical Ultrasonics, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, 530021, Guangxi, China

    Sida Wang

  4. Maternal & Child Health Hospital of Qinzhou, Qinzhou, 535099, Guangxi, China

    Long Tian & Weijun Tang

  5. Maternal & Child Health Hospital of Yulin, Yulin, 537000, Guangxi, China

    Caitong He

  6. Liuzhou Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital; Liuzhou Institute of Reproduction and Genetics, Affiliated Maternity Hospital and Affiliated Children’s Hospital of Guangxi University of Science and Technology, Liuzhou, 545006, Guangxi, China

    Chunhua Shen

  7. Department of Medical Services Section, Maternal & Child Health Hospital of Guigang, Guigang, 537000, Guangxi, China

    Bangzhu Luo

  8. Department of Obstetrics, Maternal & Child Health Hospital of Nanning, Nanning, 530021, Guangxi, China

    Maoling Zhu

  9. Department of Pediatrics, Maternal & Child Health Hospital of Wuzhou, Wuzhou, 543000, Guangxi, China

    Tao Liang

  10. Maternal & Child Health Hospital of Yuzhou, Yulin, 537000, Guangxi, China

    Baohong Pang

  11. Department of Reproductive Center, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, 530021, Guangxi, China

    Mujun Li

  12. Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, 530021, Guangxi, China

    Chaoqun Liu

  13. Department of Sanitary Chemistry, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, 530021, Guangxi, China

    Xing Chen

Authors
  1. Yuan Zheng
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  2. Longman Li
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  3. Hong Cheng
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  21. Fei Wang
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  22. Zengnan Mo
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  23. Xiaobo Yang
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Contributions

Yuan Zheng: writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, formal analysis, validation. Longman Li: writing—review and editing, formal analysis, validation. Hong Cheng: Writing—review and editing, formal analysis, validation.

Shengzhu Huang: methodology, investigation. Xiuming Feng: methodology, formal analysis, writing—review. Lulu Huang: methodology, formal analysis. Luyun Wei: methodology, formal analysis. Dehao Cao: methodology, formal analysis. Sida Wang: methodology, formal analysis. Long Tian: data curation, validation. Weijun Tang: data curation, validation. Caitong He: data curation, validation. Chunhua Shen: data curation, validation. Bangzhu Luo: data curation, validation. Maoling Zhu: data curation, validation. Tao Liang: data curation, validation. Baohong Pang: data curation, validation. Mujun Li: data curation, validation. Chaoqun Liu: data curation, formal analysis, validation. Xing Chen: data curation, formal analysis, validation. Fei Wang: data curation, formal analysis, validation. Zengnan Mo: conceptualization, investigation, funding acquisition, validation. Xiaobo Yang: conceptualization, validation, writing—review and editing, funding acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaobo Yang.

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The Medical Ethics Committee of First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University (ID: 2015(028)) have approved all study procedures.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Zheng, Y., Li, L., Cheng, H. et al. Gender-specific effects of prenatal mixed exposure to serum phthalates on neurodevelopment of children aged 2–3 years:the Guangxi Birth Cohort Study. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 85547–85558 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21769-8

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