Association between Prenatal Lead Exposure and Blood Pressure in Children
- 1 March 2012
- journal article
- Published by Environmental Health Perspectives in Environmental Health Perspectives
- Vol. 120 (3), 445-450
- https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1103736
Abstract
Lead exposure in adults is associated with hypertension. Altered prenatal nutrition is associated with subsequent risks of adult hypertension, but little is known about whether prenatal exposure to toxicants, such as lead, may also confer such risks. We investigated the relationship of prenatal lead exposure and blood pressure (BP) in 7- to 15-year-old boys and girls. We evaluated 457 mother-child pairs, originally recruited for an environmental birth cohort study between 1994 and 2003 in Mexico City, at a follow-up visit in 2008-2010. Prenatal lead exposure was assessed by measurement of maternal tibia and patella lead using in vivo K-shell X-ray fluorescence and cord blood lead using atomic absorption spectrometry. BP was measured by mercury sphygmomanometer with appropriate-size cuffs. Adjusting for relevant covariates, maternal tibia lead was significantly associated with increases in systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) in girls but not in boys (p-interaction with sex = 0.025 and 0.007 for SBP and DBP, respectively). Among girls, an interquartile range increase in tibia lead (13 μg/g) was associated with 2.11-mmHg [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.69, 3.52] and 1.60-mmHg (95% CI: 0.28, 2.91) increases in SBP and DBP, respectively. Neither patella nor cord lead was associated with child BP. Maternal tibia lead, which reflects cumulative environmental lead exposure and a source of exposure to the fetus, is a predisposing factor to higher BP in girls but not boys. Sex-specific adaptive responses to lead toxicity during early-life development may explain these differences.This publication has 46 references indexed in Scilit:
- A Prospective Study of Bone Lead Concentration and Death From All Causes, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Cancer in the Department of Veterans Affairs Normative Aging StudyCirculation, 2009
- Influence of Prenatal Lead Exposure on Genomic Methylation of Cord Blood DNAEnvironmental Health Perspectives, 2009
- DNA methylation differences after exposure to prenatal famine are common and timing- and sex-specificHuman Molecular Genetics, 2009
- Maternal Arsenic Exposure and Impaired Glucose Tolerance during PregnancyEnvironmental Health Perspectives, 2009
- Sexual dimorphism in environmental epigenetic programmingMolecular and Cellular Endocrinology, 2009
- Effect of Calcium Supplementation on Blood Lead Levels in Pregnancy: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled TrialEnvironmental Health Perspectives, 2009
- Sex differences in the developmental origins of hypertension and cardiorenal diseaseAmerican Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 2008
- Sex-specific programming of cardiovascular physiology in childrenEuropean Heart Journal, 2008
- Lead Exposure and Cardiovascular Disease—A Systematic ReviewEnvironmental Health Perspectives, 2007
- Effect of Maternal Bone Lead on Length and Head Circumference of Newborns and 1-Month-Old InfantsArchives of environmental health, 2002