Prenatal Exposure to Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Postnatal Growth: A Structural Analysis Matthew R. Lamb,1 Sylvia Taylor,1 Xinhua Liu,2 Mary S. Wolff,3 Luisa Borrell,1 Thomas D. Matte,4 Ezra S. Susser,1 and Pam Factor-Litvak1 1Department of Epidemiology, and 2Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA; 3Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA; 4New York Academy of Medicine/Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies, New York, New York, USA Abstract Normal endocrine function in utero and early in childhood influences later height and weight attainment. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent environmental contaminants with suspected endocrine-disrupting properties. PCBs may mimic or inhibit hormone and endocrine processes based in part on their structural configuration, with non-ortho-substituted PCBs having a coplanar orientation and ortho-substituted PCBs becoming increasingly noncoplanar. Coplanar and noncoplanar PCBs have known differences in biologic effect. Animal studies link prenatal PCB exposure to adverse birth and early-life growth outcomes, but epidemiologic studies are conflicting. We examined whether prenatal exposure to PCBs, categorized by their degree of ortho-substitution, affected childhood height and weight attainment in 150 children (109 boys and 41 girls) with African-American mothers born at the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital from 1959 through 1962. Stratifying by sex, we used regression models for repeated measures to investigate associations between maternal levels of PCBs and height and weight through 17 years of age. Maternal levels of ortho-substituted PCBs were associated with reduced weight through 17 years of age among girls but not among boys. Tri-ortho-substituted PCBs were marginally associated with increased height in boys. Although limited by sample size, our results suggest that prenatal exposure to PCBs may affect growth, especially in girls, and that ortho-substitution is an important determinant of its effect on growth. Key words: adverse effects, cohort studies, environmental exposure, growth, height, human, polychlorinated biphenyls, prenatal exposure, weight. Environ Health Perspect 114:779-785 (2006) . doi:10.1289/ehp.8488 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 29 December 2005] Address correspondence to P. Factor-Litvak, Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, Room 1614, 722 West 168th St., New York, NY 10032 USA. Telephone: (212) 305-7851. Fax: (212) 342-5162. E-mail: prf1@columbia.edu We are grateful to T. Janevic and M. Kilty for their helpful comments on the manuscript. Funding was provided by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency award R-82703901. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 12 July 2005 ; accepted 29 December 2005. The full version of this article is available for free in HTML or PDF formats. |