{"doi":"10.1016/j.envres.2024.118434","title":"Associations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances with maternal metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers in early-to-mid-pregnancy","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can disrupt metabolism. Early-to-mid pregnancy is characterized by amplified metabolic processes and inflammation to support maternal adaptations and fetal growth. Thus, we cross-sectionally evaluated whether PFAS are individually and jointly associated with these processes in early-to-mid pregnancy. METHODS: Pregnant Illinois women (n = 452) provided fasted blood samples at median 17 weeks gestation. We quantified serum perfluorononanoic (PFNA), perfluorooctane sulfonic (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic (PFOA), methyl-perfluorooctane sulfonamide acetic acid (Me-PFOSA-AcOH), perfluorohexanesulfonic (PFHxS), perfluorodecanoic (PFDeA), and perfluoroundecanoic (PFUdA) acid. Key outcomes were plasma glucose, insulin, C-peptide, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), adiponectin, leptin, triglycerides, free fatty acids, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, C-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and interleukin 6. We calculated homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL). We evaluated associations of PFAS with each metabolic/inflammatory biomarker individually using covariate-adjusted linear regression and jointly using quantile-based g-computation. RESULTS: In linear regression, all PFAS (except Me-PFOSA-AcOH) were negatively associated with insulin, HOMA-IR, and leptin, whereas all PFAS were positively associated with HDL cholesterol. We also observed negative associations of some PFAS with TNF-α and MCP-1; positive associations with adiponectin and total cholesterol also emerged. Additionally, PFOS was positively, whereas Me-PFOSA-AcOH was negatively, associated with triglycerides and VLDL. Each 25% increase in the PFAS mixture was associated with -31.3% lower insulin (95%CI: -45.8, -12.9), -31.9% lower HOMA-IR (95%CI: -46.4, -13.4), and -9.4% lower leptin (95%CI: -17.3, -0.8), but 7.4% higher HDL cholesterol (95%CI: 4.6, 10.3). For most outcomes, the major contributors to the PFAS mixture often differed compared to single-PFAS analyses. IMPLICATIONS: Individual and joint PFAS exposures were associated with markers of maternal metabolism and inflammation in pregnancy. Further investigation is needed to elucidate possible mechanisms and consequences of these findings.","journal":"Environmental Research","year":2024,"id":424073,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":22,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9304,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":568953,"name":"Diana C. Pacyga","orcid":"0000-0002-4158-2751","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1158497,"name":"Libeth Rosas","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1221016,"name":"Jason Whalen","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":298300,"name":"Sabrina Smith","orcid":"0000-0002-4580-573X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":298301,"name":"June-Soo Park","orcid":"0009-0005-2177-4405","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":658618,"name":"Sarah Dee Geiger","orcid":"0000-0003-2738-0245","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":196999,"name":"Joseph C. Gardiner","orcid":"0000-0003-2605-6478","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":275578,"name":"Joseph M. Braun","orcid":"0000-0002-5239-3235","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":332910,"name":"Susan L. Schantz","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":363439,"name":"Rita S. Strakovsky","orcid":"0000-0002-3551-1615","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1220398,"name":"Maria E Cinzori","orcid":"0000-0002-8188-2943","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":119,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:58:07.191194Z","pmid":"38346483","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}