New study links prenatal exposure to PFCs to childhood asthma

Getty Images 184010966

More bad news about those chemicals used in making products for our everyday lives and their link to asthma in unborn children. A recent Danish study revealed that exposure to these chemicals may affect the developing immune system of children in utero and increase the risk of childhood asthma. However, the study was not able to pinpoint the underlying mechanisms and asthma phenotype affected by exposure to these chemicals.

The results are from an extension of the Danish COPSAC2010 cohort, which studied 738 pregnant women and their baby’s plasma PFOS and PFOA concentrations. Specifically, researchers examined the association between pregnancy and childhood PFOS and PFOA exposure and childhood infections, asthma, allergic sensitization, atopic dermatitis and lung function measures. They studied potential mechanisms by integrating data on systemic low-grade inflammation (hs-CRP), functional immune responses and epigenetics. 

Results revealed that higher maternal PFOS and PFOA exposure during pregnancy indicated an association with a non-atopic asthma phenotype by age 6, a protection against sensitization, and no association with atopic asthma or lung function, or atopic dermatitis. Researchers determined the result was driven, primarily, by prenatal exposure. There was no association with infection proneness, low-grade inflammation, altered immune responses or epigenetic changes.

More in Asthma
Page 1 of 15
Next Page