Prenatal exposure to ambient air pollution is associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years of age.

BACKGROUND: Higher prenatal ambient air pollution exposure has been associated with impaired neurodevelopment in preschoolers and school-aged children. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between prenatal ambient air pollution exposure and neurodevelopment during infancy. METHODS: This study examined 161 Latino mother-infant pairs from the Southern California Mother's Milk Study. Exposure assessments included prenatal nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter smaller than 2.5 and 10 microns in diameter (PM2.5 and PM10, respectively). The pregnancy period was also examined as three windows, early, mid, and late, which describe the first, middle, and last three months of pregnancy. Infant neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years of age were measured using the Bayley-III Scales of Infant and Toddler Development. Multivariable linear models and distributed lag linear models (DLM) were used to examine relationships between prenatal exposures and neurodevelopmental scores, adjusting for socioeconomic status, breastfeeding frequency, time of delivery, pre-pregnancy body mass index, and infant birthweight and sex. RESULTS: Higher prenatal exposure to PM10 and PM2.5 was negatively associated with composite cognitive score (ß = -2.01 [-3.89, -0.13] and ß = -1.97 [-3.83, -0.10], respectively). In addition, higher average prenatal exposure to PM10 was negatively associated with composite motor (ß = -2.35 [-3.95, -0.74]), scaled motor (ß = -0.77 [-1.30, -0.24]), gross motor (ß = -0.37 [-0.70, -0.04]), fine motor (ß = -0.40 [-0.71, -0.09]), composite language (ß = -1.87 [-3.52, -0.22]), scaled language (ß = -0.61 [-1.18, -0.05]) and expressive communication scaled scores (ß = -0.36 [-0.66, -0.05]). DLMs showed that higher prenatal air pollution exposure during mid and late pregnancy was inversely associated with motor, cognitive, and communication language scores. CONCLUSIONS: Higher exposure to air pollutants during pregnancy, particularly in the mid and late prenatal periods, was inversely associated with scaled and composite motor, cognitive, and language scores at 2 years. These results indicate that prenatal ambient air pollution may negatively impact neurodevelopment in early life.

Air pollution exposure may impact the composition of human milk oligosaccharides.

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) impact neonate immunity and health outcomes. However, the environmental factors influencing HMO composition remain understudied. This study examined the associations between ambient air pollutant (AAP) exposure and HMOs at 1-month postpartum. Human milk samples were collected at 1-month postpartum (n = 185). AAP (PM2.5, PM10, NO2) exposure included the 9-month pregnancy period through 1-month postpartum. Associations between AAP with (1) HMO diversity, (2) the sum of sialylated and fucosylated HMOs, (3) 6 a priori HMOs linked with infant health, and (4) all HMOs were examined using multivariable linear regression and principal component analysis (PCA). Exposure to AAP was associated with lower HMO diversity. PM2.5 and PM10 exposure was positively associated with the HMO 3-fucosyllactose (3FL); PM2.5 exposure was positively associated with the sum of total HMOs, sum of fucosylated HMOs, and the HMO 2'-fucosyllactose (2'FL). PCA indicated the PM2.5, PM10, and NO2 exposures were associated with HMO profiles. Individual models indicated that AAP exposure was associated with five additional HMOs (LNFP I, LNFP II, DFLNT, LNH). This is the first study to demonstrate associations between AAP and breast milk HMOs. Future longitudinal studies will help determine the long-term impact of AAP on human milk composition.

Specific amino acids but not total protein attenuate postpartum weight gain among Hispanic women from Southern California.

There is a high prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes in the United States, particularly among Hispanic women, which may be partly explained by failure to lose gestational weight during the postpartum period. Previous work indicates that protein and amino acids may protect against weight gain; therefore, this study examined the impact of dietary protein and amino acid intake on changes in postpartum weight and the percent of women meeting the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) for these dietary variables among Hispanic women from the Southern California Mother's Milk Study (n = 99). Multivariable linear regression analysis was used to examine the associations between protein and amino acid intake with change in weight after adjusting for maternal age, height, and energy intake. Women's weight increased from prepregnancy to 1-month and 6-months postpartum (71.1 ± 14.6 vs. 73.1 ± 13.1 vs. 74.5 ± 14.6 kg, p < .0001). Although dietary protein was not associated with weight change (ß = -1.09; p = .13), phenylalanine (ß = -1.46; p = .04), tryptophan (ß = -1.71; p = .009), valine (ß = -1.34; p = .04), isoleucine (ß = -1.26; p = .045), and cysteine (ß = -1.52; p = .02) intake were inversely associated with weight change. Additionally, fewer women met the EAR values for cysteine (11.1%), phenylalanine (60.6%), and methionine (69.7%), whereas most women met the EAR values for tryptophan (92.9%), valine (96.0%), and isoleucine (94.9%). Study results indicate that several essential and conditionally essential amino acids were associated with postpartum weight loss, with a significant portion of women not meeting recommended intake levels for some of these amino acids. These results highlight the importance of postpartum maternal diet as a potential modifiable risk factor.