%0 Journal Article
%T Neonatal Thyroid Function in Seveso 25 Years after Maternal Exposure to Dioxin
%A Andrea Baccarelli
%A Sara M Giacomini
%A Carlo Corbetta
%A Maria Teresa Landi
%A Matteo Bonzini
%A Dario Consonni
%A Paolo Grillo
%A Donald G Patterson Jr.
%A Angela C Pesatori
%A Pier Alberto Bertazzi
%J PLOS Medicine
%D 2008
%I Public Library of Science (PLoS)
%R 10.1371/journal.pmed.0050161
%X Background Neonatal hypothyroidism has been associated in animal models with maternal exposure to several environmental contaminants; however, evidence for such an association in humans is inconsistent. We evaluated whether maternal exposure to 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), a persistent and widespread toxic environmental contaminant, is associated with modified neonatal thyroid function in a large, highly exposed population in Seveso, Italy. Methods and Findings Between 1994 and 2005, in individuals exposed to TCDD after the 1976 Seveso accident we conducted: (i) a residence-based population study on 1,014 children born to the 1,772 women of reproductive age in the most contaminated zones (A, very high contamination; B, high contamination), and 1,772 age-matched women from the surrounding noncontaminated area (reference); (ii) a biomarker study on 51 mother¨Cchild pairs for whom recent maternal plasma dioxin measurements were available. Neonatal blood thyroid-stimulating hormone (b-TSH) was measured on all children. We performed crude and multivariate analyses adjusting for gender, birth weight, birth order, maternal age, hospital, and type of delivery. Mean neonatal b-TSH was 0.98 ¦ÌU/ml (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.90¨C1.08) in the reference area (n = 533), 1.35 ¦ÌU/ml (95% CI 1.22¨C1.49) in zone B (n = 425), and 1.66 ¦ÌU/ml (95% CI 1.19¨C2.31) in zone A (n = 56) (p < 0.001). The proportion of children with b-TSH > 5 ¦ÌU/ml was 2.8% in the reference area, 4.9% in zone B, and 16.1% in zone A (p < 0.001). Neonatal b-TSH was correlated with current maternal plasma TCDD (n = 51, ¦Â = 0.47, p < 0.001) and plasma toxic equivalents of coplanar dioxin-like compounds (n = 51, ¦Â = 0.45, p = 0.005). Conclusions Our data indicate that environmental contaminants such as dioxins have a long-lasting capability to modify neonatal thyroid function after the initial exposure.
%U http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0050161