Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Recent studies suggest that glyphosate has many characteristics of an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) through alteration of the hypothalamus-pituitary axis and cellular-signaling, evidenced in in vitro studies of human cell lines and rat models. We assessed the relationship between urinary concentrations of glyphosate with adrenal and gonadal hormones in Ecuadorian adolescents living in an agricultural community. METHODS: We examined 522 adolescents (ages: 11-17y, 50.7% female, 78% Mestizo or White) living in Pedro Moncayo, Ecuador in the summer of 2016 (The ESPINA study), a non-peak pesticide spray season, and measured urinary glyphosate concentration using mass-spectrometry and salivary hormone concentrations using enzymatic methods (dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA], testosterone, cortisol, and estradiol [the last in boys only]). Saliva was collected upon awakening. Glyphosate was detected in 98% of participants. We conducted pooled and gender stratified multivariate general linear models to assess the relationship between ln-glyphosate and ln-hormone concentrations. Models adjusted for age, race, BMI-for-age z-score, sexual maturation, sample collection time after awakening and ln-creatinine. Estimates were then transformed to present percent difference in hormone concentration per 10% increase in pesticide metabolite concentrations (β). RESULTS:The median glyphosate concentration was 0.87 ng/mL (range: 0.41-1.80 ng/mL, detectable in 98%). In pooled (boys and girls) analyses, a 10% increase in glyphosate concentration was associated with a 0.81% (95% CI: 0.33%, 1.30%) increase in testosterone. This association was stronger in boys (β=1.04% [0.34%, 1.74%]) than girls (β=-0.02% [-0.52%, 0.48%]). Glyphosate was also positively associated with cortisol concentration in boys (β=1.38% [0.45%, 2.32%]) and borderline negatively associated with concentration in girls (β=-0.57% [-1.25%, 0.10%]). No associations were seen for DHEA or estradiol. CONCLUSIONS:Urinary glyphosate was positively associated with concurrent testosterone and cortisol concentrations among male adolescents. Our findings provide some of the first epidemiological data to support prior in-vitro and in-vivo findings that have characterized glyphosate as an EDC. KEYWORDS: Pesticides, Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals, Environmental Epidemiology
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