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Guy Huel,¹ Josiane Sahuquillo,¹ Ginette Debotte,¹ Jean-François Oury,² and Larissa Takser³

¹Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM-IFR69-U780), Recherche en Épidemiologie et en Biostatistique, Villejuif, France; ²Département d'Obstétrique et Gynécologie, Hôpital Robert Debré, Paris, France; ³Département d'Obstétrique et Gynécologie, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada

Abstract
Background: Calcium homeostasis is a known target of several environmental toxicants including lead and mercury.

Objective: Our goal was to determine the relationship between Hg exposure and erythrocyte Ca pump activity in women at delivery and in their newborns.

Methods: We determined total Hg as well as Pb concentrations in 81 hair and blood samples obtained at delivery. Basal and calmodulin-stimulated Ca pump activity was measured in red blood cells from cord blood and maternal erythrocyte plasma membranes.

Results: Maternal hair Hg negatively correlates with Ca pump activity in maternal and cord blood erythrocytes. Pb and Hg both independently correlate negatively with Ca pump activity without any statistically significant interaction. After adjustment for potential confounders, Pb and Hg explain about 30% and 7% of total variance of Ca pump activity in newborns and mothers, respectively.

Conclusion: Our findings confirm results reported in previous experimental studies and support the use of biomarkers in newborns from general population.

Key words: calcium, cord blood, environmental exposure, lead, mercury, newborn, pregnancy. Environ Health Perspect 116:263–267 (2008) . doi:10.1289/ehp.10381 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 17 November 2007]

Address correspondence to L. Takser, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, 3001, 12e avenue Nord, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada J1H 5N4. Telephone: 1-819-346-1110 ext 15809. Fax: 1-819-820-6434. E-mail: larissa.takser@usherbrooke.ca

We thank the staff of Robert Debré Obstetric Department for its collaboration and all recruited women for their participation in this study.

This study was supported by the French Ministry of Environment (Environmental Health Action, grant DRAEI/93037) and the Agence française de sécurité sanitaire de l'environnement et du travail (AFSSET, grant RD-2004-005) .

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 19 April 2007 ; accepted 15 November 2007.