Associations between aromatic amines and oxidative stress biomarkers among pregnant women in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.

Background

Aromatic amines (AAs) have rarely been studied in the context of pregnancy despite their ubiquity and known toxicity. To our knowledge, no study has investigated the relationship between AAs and F2-isoprostanes, which are linked to adverse maternal and child health outcomes.

Methods

Our analytic sample included 176 participants from the Chemicals in Our Bodies prospective birth cohort. Thirty-six AAs and four F2-isoprostanes (biomarkers of oxidative stress) were measured in mid-pregnancy urine. We focused on six AAs that were detected in at least 50% of participants and calculated their molar sum (ΣAA). An additional six AAs that were detected in 20-49% of participants were analyzed as binary variables. Generalized additive mixed models were used to assess non-linearity, and linear regression models were used to examine associations between individual AAs and individual oxidative stress biomarkers, adjusting for confounders.

Results

Most AAs were associated with significant increases in oxidative stress biomarkers. Increasing concentrations of ΣAA were significantly associated with 8-iso-PGF2α (β=0.25, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.1, 0.41) and PGF2α (β=0.21, CI=0.04, 0.39). Additionally, the individual AAs o/m-toluidine and 4-chloroaniline were associated with significant increases in 8-iso-PGF2α and PGF2α.

Conclusions

Our study is the first to investigate the relationship between AAs and F2-isoprostanes during pregnancy. This study found that several AAs are associated with higher levels of oxidative stress, highlighting one potential mechanism linking AAs to adverse maternal-child health outcomes.