Abstract
ObjectiveThe extensive use of rare earth elements (REEs) in many technologies was found to have effects on human health, but the association between early pregnancy exposure to REEs and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is still unknown.MethodsThis nested case-control study involved 200 pregnant women with GDM and 200 healthy pregnant women from the Peking University Birth Cohort in Tongzhou. We examined the serum concentrations of 14 REEs during early pregnancy and analyzed their associations with the risk of GDM.ResultsWhen the elements were considered individually in the logistic regression model, no significant associations were found between REEs and GDM, after adjusting for confounding variables (P > 0.05). In weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression, each quartile decrease in the mixture index for REEs resulted in a 1.67-fold (95% CI: 1.12-2.49) increased risk of GDM. Neodymium (Nd), Praseodymium (Pr), and Lanthanum (La) were the most important contributors in the mixture.ConclusionThe study findings indicated that early pregnancy exposure to lower levels of REE mixture was associated with an increased risk of GDM, and Nd, Pr, and La exhibited the strongest effects in the mixture.
Highlights
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), defined as any degree of glucose intolerance with onset or first recognition during pregnancy [1], affects a considerable number of pregnant women worldwide [2]
We investigated the association between serum Rare earth elements (REEs) concentrations and GDM risk among pregnant women in Beijing, China
The weighted quantile sum (WQS) model indicated that exposure to lower levels of REEs mixtures was associated with an increased risk of GDM, and three elements, Nd, Pr, and La, were important contributors to the REE mixture
Summary
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), defined as any degree of glucose intolerance with onset or first recognition during pregnancy [1], affects a considerable number of pregnant women worldwide [2]. The offspring of mothers with GDM have a higher incidence of macrosomia and a higher risk of diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases later in life [5,6,7]. Both genetic susceptibility and lifestyle risk factors have been shown to play a role in the etiology of GDM, yet the impact of environmental exposure remains unclear [8,9,10]. The effects of environmental metal exposure on GDM risk have attracted increasing attention worldwide. Different metals exhibited protective [11,12,13] or deleterious [14,15,16,17] effects on the development of GDM
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