Principal investigator: Enrique F. Schisterman, Ph.D.
Oxidative stress has been implicated as a risk factor for a variety of negative health outcomes, and in particular for endometriosis and infertility/impaired fecundity. Thus far, research in this area has not investigated factors that lead to increased oxidative stress. This effort is interested in environmental agents, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other organochlorines (OCPs), as causative agents of oxidative stress, and their direct and indirect effects on the reproductive outcomes endometriosis and time-to-pregnancy.
A goal of this research is to assess the relation among the environmental toxicants, PCBs and OCPs, oxidative stress, and reproductive outcomes. The goal will be accomplished by building upon two studies where PCBs and OCPs have been quantified for study participants. These individual exposure data add to a wealth of baseline information, including information on known and potential confounders. In preparation for designing a larger more definitive study, the specific questions this study will address are:
- Are PCBs a cause or confounder of the relation between oxidative stress levels and reproductive outcomes (i.e., in the causal pathway)?
- What is the expected effect size of oxidative stress on the two outcomes (e.g., endometriosis and time to pregnancy)?<
Recently, the use of directed acyclic graphs has become more common in the epidemiological literature as an aid to visualize causality. The researchers will use this tool to help evaluate these questions.
DESPR Collaborators·
Aiyi Liu, Ph.D.
Selected Publications
Jackson LW, Schisterman EF, Dey-Rao R, Browne R, & Armstrong D. (2005). Oxidative stress and endometriosis.
Human Reproduction, 20(7):2014-2020. [
Abstract]
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