Determination of prenatal exposure to parabens and triclosan and estimation of maternal and fetal burden

Vasiliki Karzi; Manolis N Tzatzarakis; Eleftheria Hatzidaki; Ioanna Katsikantami; Athanasios Alegakis; Elena Vakonaki; Alexandra Kalogeraki; Elisavet Kouvidi; Pelagia Xezonaki; Stavros Sifakis; Apostolos K Rizos

doi:10.1016/j.toxrep.2021.03.030

Determination of prenatal exposure to parabens and triclosan and estimation of maternal and fetal burden

Toxicol Rep. 2021 Apr 2:8:808-815. doi: 10.1016/j.toxrep.2021.03.030. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Toxicology, Medicine School, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, GR-70013, Greece.
² Department of Chemistry, University of Crete and Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH-IESL), Heraklion, Crete, GR-71003, Greece.
³ Department of Neonatology & NICU, University Hospital of Heraklion, Crete, GR-71500, Greece.
⁴ Department of Pathology-Cytopathology, Medical School, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, GR-70013, Greece.
⁵ Genesis Genoma Lab, Genetic Diagnosis, Clinical Genetics & Research, Athens, GR-15232, Greece.
⁶ Mitera Maternity Hospital, Heraklion, Crete, GR-71201, Greece.

Abstract

Background: Parabens (PBs) and triclosan (TCS) are generally used as antimicrobials mostly in personal care products. Their wide prevalence in daily products raised an acute need for the biomonitoring of these contaminants and the investigation of possible health impacts.

Material and methods: In this study we aimed to quantitatively determine PBs and TCS levels in urine and amniotic fluid samples using a liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry system (LC-MS). Ninety nine (99) pregnant women took part in this research. The samples were collected during the amniocentesis in the early second trimester of their pregnancy. Women of all ages, education, household income and profession were selected. The exposure and the burden of pregnant women and their infants were also evaluated.

Results: The most prevalent compound in urine, among the analyzed, was TCS with 74.7 % positive samples while in amniotic fluid methyl paraben (MePB) with 21.2 % positive samples. MePB was detected at higher concentrations in urine (mean: 378.5 ng/mL) followed by TCS (mean: 55.3 ng/mL), ethyl paraben (EtPB) (mean: 23.2 ng/mL) and butyl paraben (BuPB) (mean: 2.3 ng/mL) while benzyl paraben (BePB) was not detected in any urine sample. Concentrations in amniotic fluid samples were much lower. In particular, the mean concentrations were 6.6 ng/mL for MePB, 9.2 ng/mL for EtPB, 0.4 ng/mL for BuPB, 0.6 ng/mL for BePB and 1.8 ng/mL for TCS. The detected levels of all analytes in urine were correlated with those in amniotic fluid but no statistically significant results arose (p >n0.05). Negative associations were observed between amniotic fluid levels of MePB and maternal age (p = 0.05) while both urinary and amniotic levels of TCS were correlated with maternal BMI (p = 0.04). Somatometric characteristics of the infants showed no statistical significant associations with the detected levels of PBs and TCS.

Conclusion: This study indicated a strong/possible association between exposure of pregnant women to TCS and higher/lower maternal body weight gain during pregnancy. The same trend was observed between amniotic fluid MePB levels and maternal age. However, no statistically significant associations were observed between neonatal somatometric characteristics or health status and PBs and TCS levels.

Keywords: Amniotic fluid; LC–MS; Parabens; Pregnant women; Triclosan; Urine.