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Docosahexaenoic Acid Effect on Prenatal Exposure to Arsenic and Atopic Dermatitis in Mexican Preschoolers

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Abstract

Childhood atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic and recurrent health problem that involves multiple factors, particularly immunological and environmental. We evaluated the impact of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation on prenatal arsenic exposure on the risk of atopic dermatitis in preschool children as part of the POSGRAD (Prenatal Omega-3 fatty acid Supplements, GRowth, And Development) clinical trial study in the city of Morelos, Mexico. Our study population included 300 healthy mother–child pairs. Of these, 146 were in the placebo group and 154 in the supplement group. Information on family history, health, and other variables was obtained through standardized questionnaires used during follow-up. Prenatal exposure to arsenic concentrations, which appear in maternal urine, was measured by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. To assess the effect of prenatal arsenic exposure on AD risk, we ran a generalized estimating equation model for longitudinal data, adjusting for potential confounders, and testing for interaction by omega-3 fatty acid supplementation during pregnancy. The mean and SD (standard deviation) of arsenic concentration during pregnancy was 0.06 mg/L, SD (0.04 mg/L). We found a marginally significant association between prenatal arsenic exposure and AD (OR = 1.12, 95% CI: 0.99, 1.26); however, DHA supplementation during pregnancy modified the effect of arsenic on AD risk (p < 0.05). The results of this study strengthen the evidence that arsenic exposure during pregnancy increases the risk of atopic dermatitis early in life. However, supplementation with omega-e fatty acids during pregnancy could modify this association.

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Data Availability

The data sets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available because the privacy of individual participants could be compromised but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the participants in this project.

Funding

This study was supported by Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, CONACYT), Grant 87121, and by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Award R01HD058818.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación en Salud Poblacional, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Morelos, Cuernavaca, México

    Ivan Figueroa-Garduño, Consuelo Escamilla-Núñez, Albino Barraza-Villarreal, Leticia Hernández-Cadena & Isabelle Romieu

  2. Departamento de Ingeniería en Sistemas Ambientales, Instituto Politécnico Nacional: Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas, Ciudad de Mexico, México

    Erika Noelia Onofre-Pardo

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  1. Ivan Figueroa-Garduño
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Contributions

CEN was the general coordinator and participated in conceptualization; methodology; validation; formal analysis; investigation; writing, original draft; writing, review and editing; visualization; and supervision. IFG: Conceptualization; methodology; data curation; writing, original draft; visualization. ABV: Methodology; investigation; writing, original draft; resources; supervision; writing, review and editing; project administration. LHC: Writing, original draft; writing, review and editing. ENOP: Writing, original draft; writing, review and editing. IR: Writing, original draft; writing, review and editing; funding acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Consuelo Escamilla-Núñez.

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Ethics Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were under the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Ethics and Investigation Committees of the Mexican National Institute of Public Health (Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, INSP), and the Emory University Ethics Committee approved the investigation protocol (CI:418).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. All children participated in the study with their parent’s written informed consent.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Figueroa-Garduño, I., Escamilla-Núñez, C., Barraza-Villarreal, A. et al. Docosahexaenoic Acid Effect on Prenatal Exposure to Arsenic and Atopic Dermatitis in Mexican Preschoolers. Biol Trace Elem Res 201, 3152–3161 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-022-03411-3

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