Abstract
Objectives: To analyze the impact of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in ambient air at the time of delivery and five years of age on cognitive development in five year old children. Materials and Methods: Two cohorts of children born in the years 2013 and 2014 from Karvina (Northern Moravia, n = 70) and Ceske Budejovice (Southern Bohemia, n = 99) were studied at the age of five years for their cognitive development related to the exposure to PAHs, determined in the ambient air as the concentration of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) and OH–PAH (hydroxy-PAH) metabolites in urine of the newborns at the time of delivery. As psychological tests, the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test (BG test) and the Raven Colored Progressive Matrices (RCPM test) were used. Results: Concentrations of B[a]P in the third trimester of mother’s pregnancies were 6.1 ± 4.53 ng/m3 in Karvina, and 1.19 ± 1.28 ng/m3 (p < 0.001) in Ceske Budejovice. Neither the outcome of the RCPM test nor the BG test differed between children in Karvina vs. Ceske Budejovice, or boys vs. girls. Cognitive development in five year old children was affected by the higher exposure to PM2.5 during the third trimester in girls in Karvina. Conclusions: We did not observe any significant effect of prenatal PAH exposure on psychological cognitive tests in five year old children.
Highlights
Already thirty years ago, Sram [1] hypothesized that air pollution exposure of the fetus developing in uterus may induce functional changes in the nervous system, which may later be expressed as developmental disorders or neurobehavioral impairment.The first report of the behavioral effects of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) exposure in rats was published by Saunders et al in 2001 [2].The effect of prenatal exposure to airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on neurodevelopment was studied by Frederica Perera in New York for a long-term Columbia University cohort of non-smoking African-American and Dominican mothers and children
Neither outcome of the RCPM test nor the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test (BG test) differed between children in Karvina vs. Ceske Budejovice, or boys vs. girls
When we compared the OH–PAHs metabolites in the urine of newborns at the time of delivery, we did not find any effect of any OH–PAH metabolites on the cognitive development of five year old children
Summary
Sram [1] hypothesized that air pollution exposure of the fetus developing in uterus may induce functional changes in the nervous system, which may later be expressed as developmental disorders or neurobehavioral impairment.The first report of the behavioral effects of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) exposure in rats was published by Saunders et al in 2001 [2].The effect of prenatal exposure to airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on neurodevelopment was studied by Frederica Perera in New York for a long-term Columbia University cohort of non-smoking African-American and Dominican mothers and children. Sram [1] hypothesized that air pollution exposure of the fetus developing in uterus may induce functional changes in the nervous system, which may later be expressed as developmental disorders or neurobehavioral impairment. The first report of the behavioral effects of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) exposure in rats was published by Saunders et al in 2001 [2]. The effect of prenatal exposure to airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on neurodevelopment was studied by Frederica Perera in New York for a long-term Columbia University cohort of non-smoking African-American and Dominican mothers and children. Brain Sci. 2020, 10, 619; doi:10.3390/brainsci10090619 www.mdpi.com/journal/brainsci. This cohort was followed at the age of three years by the Bayley test [4].
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