Background
Local seafood is a dietary staple among the African American Gullah population of South Carolina. High levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been found in local bottlenose dolphins, sentinel species for human health and consumers of many of the same fish as the Gullah. Links have been established between these bioaccumulating, ubiquitous compounds and deleterious health effects in humans. The objective was to determine whether levels of POPs, specifically perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), correlate with fish intake and markers of immune dysfunction in genetically at-risk individuals.
Methods
At the onset of the Persistent Organic Pollutants in AutoImmunity (POPAI) study, one-on-one interviews were conducted with Gullah community members to validate a comprehensive environmental exposure questionnaire. The validated questionnaire, including a seafood intake survey, was then administered prospectively to patients with lupus, first-degree relatives of lupus patients, and unrelated nonlupus controls participating in the SLE in Gullah Health (SLEIGH) study. PFC levels (PFOS, PFOA and PFNA), antinuclear antibody titers and other autoantibodies were measured in the serum of participants drawn at the time of their study visit.
Results
Seafood intake questionnaires received from 103 Gullah participants enrolled in the SLEIGH study found 57% consumed locally caught seafood at least once a month and 40% consumed species known to contain high levels of POPs in the Charleston Harbor area. Preliminary results from 33 Gullah controls show that all have measurable serum levels of PFCs (specifically PFOS, PFOA and PFNA) from baseline and follow-up visits 7.3 ± 1.4 years apart, with annual servings of seafood directly correlating with serum PFOS and PFNA (p=0.02 and 0.03). ANA positive controls (48% at baseline) had higher mean levels compared to ANA negative controls for PFOS (75.1 vs 48.2 ng/ml, p=0.06), PFOA (7.0 vs 5.8, p=NS) and PFNA (3.2 vs 2.1, p=0.04).
Conclusion
These ongoing studies address concerns of the Sea Island Gullah community regarding the potential immune health effects of the bioaccumulating pollutants found in local dietary staples such as fish.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
About this article
Cite this article
Kamen, D., Peden-Adams, M., Vena, J. et al. Seafood consumption and persistent organic pollutants as triggers of autoimmunity among Gullah African Americans. Arthritis Res Ther 14 (Suppl 3), A19 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/ar3953
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/ar3953