| Levels and Concentration Ratios of Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in Serum and Breast Milk in Japanese Mothers Kayoko Inoue,1* Kouji Harada,1* Katsunobu Takenaka,2 Shigeki Uehara,3 Makoto Kono,4 Takashi Shimizu,5 Takumi Takasuga,6 Kurunthachalam Senthilkumar,6 Fumiyoshi Yamashita,7 and Akio Koizumi1 1Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan; 2Department of Neurosurgery, Takayama Red Cross Hospital, Takayama, Japan; 3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tohoku Kosai Hospital, Sendai, Japan; 4Kono Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic, Shizunai, Japan; 5Shimizu Woman's Clinic, Takarazuka, Japan; 6Shimadzu Techno-Research Inc., Kyoto, Japan; 7Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan Abstract
Blood and/or breast milk have been used to assess human exposure to various environmental contaminants. Few studies have been available to compare the concentrations in one matrix with those in another. The goals of this study were to determine the current levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Japanese women, with analysis of the effects of lifestyle and dietary habits on these levels, and to develop a quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) with which to predict the ratio of serum concentration to breast milk concentration.We measured PBDEs and PCBs in 89 paired samples of serum and breast milk collected in four regions of Japan in 2005. The geometric means of the total concentrations of PBDE (13 congeners) in milk and serum were 1.56 and 2.89 ng/g lipid, respectively, whereas those of total PCBs (15 congeners) were 63.9 and 37.5 ng/g lipid, respectively. The major determinant of total PBDE concentration in serum and milk was the geographic area within Japan, whereas nursing duration was the major determinant of PCB concentration. BDE-209 was the most predominant PBDE congener in serum but not in milk. The excretion of BDE 209 in milk was lower than that of BDE 47 and BDE 153. QSAR analysis revealed that two parameters, calculated octanol/water partition and number of hydrogen-bond acceptors, were significant descriptors. During the first weeks of lactation, the predicted partitioning of PBDE and PCB congeners from serum to milk agreed with the observed values. However, the prediction became weaker after 10 weeks of nursing. Key words: breast milk, partition coefficient, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polychlorinated biphenyls, quantitative structure–activity relationship, serum. Environ Health Perspect 114: 1179–1185 (2006) . doi:10.1289/ehp.9032 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 18 April 2006]
Address correspondence to A. Koizumi, Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Yoshida Konoe-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan. Telephone: 81-75-753-4456. Fax: 81-75-753-4458. E-mail: koizumi@pbh.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp *These authors contributed equally to this study. Supplemental Material is available online at http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2006/9032/suppl.pdf This study was supported primarily by a Grant-in-Aid for Health Sciences Research from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare of Japan (H15-Chemistry-004) , but also received funding from and by the Nippon Life Insurance Foundation (Environment-04-08) . The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 21 January 2006 ; accepted 18 April 2006.
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