A Relationship in Adrenal Androgen Levels between Mothers and Their Children from a Dioxin-Exposed Region in Vietnam
Publisher: Science of the Total Environment
Author(s): Le Thai Anh, Teruhiko Kido, Seijiro Honma, Ho Dung Manh, Ikue Koike, Yuko Oyama, Hoang Duc Phuc, Rie Okamoto, Hideaki Nakagawa, Shoji F. Nakayama, Dang Duc Nhu, Nguyen Hung Minh, Ngo Van Toan, and Le Ke Son
Date: 2017
Topics: Weapons, Waste, and Pollution
Countries: Vietnam
Over the past decades, southern Vietnam has been burdened by dioxins from contaminated herbicides sprayed during the Vietnam War. In a previous study, we found that dioxin exposure decreased levels of salivary dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), an adrenal androgen, in 3-year-old children. In present study, to assess the relationship between adrenal hormones disruption in lactating mothers and in children, we compared mother-child pairs from dioxin- and nondioxin-contaminated regions. In 2010 and 2011, mother-child pairs from a dioxin hotspot region (n = 37) and a non-contaminated region (n = 47) were recruited and donated breast milk and serum samples for dioxin and steroid hormones determination. Mothers were 20–30 years old and had given birth to their first child between 4 and 16 weeks previously. One year later, saliva samples were collected from the children. Dioxin levels in breast milk were determined by gas chromatography/high-resolution mass spectrometry. Salivary DHEA, cortisol in children and androstenedione (A-dione), estradiol, cortisol, and DHEA in maternal serum were analyzed by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. Concentrations of dioxin congeners in the hotspot region were 2- to 5-fold higher than in samples from the non-contaminated region. Salivary DHEA levels in children and serum A-dione levels in mothers were significantly higher in the hotspot region; no difference was found in the levels of other hormones. Moreover, there was a significant positive correlation between the elevated hormone levels in mothers and children (r = 0.62, p < 0.001). Several dioxin congeners exhibited strong significant dose-response relationships with salivary DHEA and serum A-dione levels. Our findings suggest that dioxin disrupts adrenal androgens in mothers and breastfeeding children through the same mechanism.