Associations Between Metal Levels in Whole Blood and IgE Concentrations in Pregnant Women Based on Data From the Japan Environment and Children’s Study

Tsuji Mayumi

Koriyama Chihaya

Ishihara Yasuhiro

Yamamoto Megumi

Yamamoto-Hanada Kiwako

Kanatani Kumiko

Bamai Yu Ait

Onishi Kazunari

Senju Ayako

Araki Shunsuke

Shibata Eiji

Morokuma Seiichi

Sanefuji Masafumi

Kitazawa Hiroshi

Saito Mayako

Umezawa Masakazu

Onoda Atsuto

Kusuhara Koichi

Tanaka Rie

Kawamoto Toshihiro

the Japan Environment & Children’s Study Group

Journal of Epidemiology

Background: Metal exposures could possibly affect allergic responses in pregnant women, although no studies have yet shown a clear relationship between the two, and such exposures might also affect the development of allergic diseases in children.
Methods: We investigated the relationship between metal concentrations in whole blood and immunoglobulin E (IgE; total and specific) in 14,408 pregnant women who participated in the Japan Environment and Children’s Study. The subjects submitted self-administered questionnaires, and blood samples were collected from them twice, specifically, during the first trimester and again during the second=third trimester. Concentrations of the metals Cd, Pb, Hg, Se, and Mn, as well as serum total and allergen-specific IgEs for egg white, house dust-mites (HDM), Japanese cedar pollen (JCP), animal dander, and moth, were measured. Allergen-specific IgE(s) were divided based on concentrations <0.35 or ≥0.35UA=mL, and the metal levels were divided into quartiles.
Results: Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that there was a significant negative correlation between HDM- and animal dander-specific IgEs and Hg and Mn concentrations. Conversely, there was a significant positive relationship between JCP-specific IgE and Hg and Se concentrations.
Conclusions: Metal exposures may be related to both increases and decreases in allergen-specific IgEs in pregnant women.

metal concentrations

specific IgE

pregnant women

maternal health

allergic sensitization

eng

Japan Epidemiological Association

日本疫学会

Copyright © 2019 Mayumi Tsuji et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

[ISSN] 1349-9092

[ISSN] 0917-5040

[DOI] 10.2188/jea.JE20180098

[PMID] 30643099

[DOI] https://doi.org/10.2188/jea.JE20180098