Prenatal Triclosan Exposure and Neurodevelopment of 2-Year-Old Children in Shangdong, China

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The neurodevelopment effects of triclosan (TCS) have been observed in animals and school-age children. However, epidemiologic studies are limited to confirm the associations for young children. We investigated the potential effect of prenatal TCS exposure on neurodevelopment of 2-year-old children. METHODS: From September 2010 to December 2013, 294 mother-infant pairs were enrolled from a prospective cohort study in Shandong, China. Maternal urine samples were collected for TCS measurement. Gesell Developmental Schedules (GDS) were used to assess children’s neurodevelopment at 2 years of age. Multiple linear regression models and generalized linear models were used to analyze the association between prenatal TCS exposure and the children’s developmental quotient scores (DQs). RESULTS:The median value of TCS concentration was 0.24ug/L or 0.67ug/g creatinine. When TCS were modeled as quartile variables, maternal TCS levels were adversely associated with children’s DQs in gross motor domain (2ndquartile: β=-3.44, 95% CI: -6.39 to -4.89, p=0.02) and adaptive domain (3rdquartile: β=-3.11, 95% CI: -5.95 to -0.28, p=0.03). In gender-stratified analyses, maternal TCS levels were significantly adversely associated with the gross motor domain DQs only among girls (p-trend=0.03) and the adaptive domain DQs only among boys (p-trend=0.01). Additionally, a log-unit increase in TCS was related to decrease in language domain DQs among boys (β=-2.13, 95% CI: -4.06 to -0.19, p=0.03). CONCLUSIONS:The findings suggested the potential impacts of prenatal TCS exposure on neurodevelopment of 2-year-old children in gross motor domain, adaptive domain and language domain. Further studies on the biological mechanisms of these associations are needed. KEYWORDS: Triclosan, Prenatal exposure, Neurodevelopment