Modification of the association by sex between the prenatal exposure to di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and fat percentage in a cohort of Mexicans schoolchildren.

INTRODUCTION: Children's overweight and obesity are global public health problems, children with obesity have grater obesity risk as adults, thus leading to develop cardiometabolic diseases. Previous studies have found positive and significant associations between the exposure to phthalates and body mass index and body composition. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the modification of the association by sex between DEHP exposure during pregnancy and the percentage of body fat in a cohort of Mexican schoolchildren. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The sample was comprised by children which had previously participated in a POSGRAD longitudinal study. A subsample of 190 mother-children binomials were included. Mothers' DEHP concentrations and its metabolites had been measured in the second trimester of pregnancy: Mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP), Mono-2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl phthalate (MECPP), Mono-2-ethyl-5-hidroxyhexyl phthalate (MEHHP), and Mono-2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl phthalate (MEOHP). The children's adipose mass was measured at age 8, 9, and 10. Longitudinal data were analyzed using the mixed effects linear regression model, with intercept and random slope, adjusted by important confounders and stratified by sex. RESULTS: We found a differentiated effect by sex, the exposure to DEHP during pregnancy significantly increases the adipose mass in boys. The average increase was 0.058% (p = 0.02) for every 1% variation in MECPP; 0.047% (p = 0.04) in MEHHP; 0.051% (p = 0.03) in MEOHP, and 0.066% (p = 0.007) in MECPP. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest an effect differentiated by sex; with boys being the main ones affected by the prenatal exposure to phthalates. However, we cannot rule out effects in girls.

Genome-wide interaction studies reveal sex-specific asthma risk alleles.

Asthma is a complex disease with sex-specific differences in prevalence. Candidate gene studies have suggested that genotype-by-sex interaction effects on asthma risk exist, but this has not yet been explored at a genome-wide level. We aimed to identify sex-specific asthma risk alleles by performing a genome-wide scan for genotype-by-sex interactions in the ethnically diverse participants in the EVE Asthma Genetics Consortium. We performed male- and female-specific genome-wide association studies in 2653 male asthma cases, 2566 female asthma cases and 3830 non-asthma controls from European American, African American, African Caribbean and Latino populations. Association tests were conducted in each study sample, and the results were combined in ancestry-specific and cross-ancestry meta-analyses. Six sex-specific asthma risk loci had P-values < 1 × 10(-6), of which two were male specific and four were female specific; all were ancestry specific. The most significant sex-specific association in European Americans was at the interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF1) locus on 5q31.1. We also identify a Latino female-specific association in RAP1GAP2. Both of these loci included single-nucleotide polymorphisms that are known expression quantitative trait loci and have been associated with asthma in independent studies. The IRF1 locus is a strong candidate region for male-specific asthma susceptibility due to the association and validation we demonstrate here, the known role of IRF1 in asthma-relevant immune pathways and prior reports of sex-specific differences in interferon responses.

Short-Term Ambient Air Ozone Exposure and Components of Metabolic Syndrome in a Cohort of Mexican Obese Adolescents.

Ambient air pollution is a major global public health concern; little evidence exists about the effects of short-term exposure to ozone on components of metabolic syndrome in young obese adolescents. The inhalation of air pollutants, such as ozone, can participate in the development of oxidative stress, systemic inflammation, insulin resistance, endothelium dysfunction, and epigenetic modification. Metabolic alterations in blood in components of metabolic syndrome (MS) and short-term ambient air ozone exposure were determined and evaluated longitudinally in a cohort of 372 adolescents aged between 9 to 19 years old. We used longitudinal mixed-effects models to evaluate the association between ozone exposure and the risk of components of metabolic syndrome and its parameters separately, adjusted using important variables. We observed statistically significant associations between exposure to ozone in tertiles in different lag days and the parameters associated with MS, especially for triglycerides (20.20 mg/dL, 95% CI: 9.5, 30.9), HDL cholesterol (-2.56 mg/dL (95% CI: -5.06, -0.05), and systolic blood pressure (1.10 mmHg, 95% CI: 0.08, 2.2). This study supports the hypothesis that short-term ambient air exposure to ozone may increase the risk of some components of MS such as triglycerides, cholesterol, and blood pressure in the obese adolescent population.

Effect of ultra-processed food intake on metabolic syndrome components and body fat in children and adolescents: A systematic review based on cohort studies.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to thoroughly review the scientific literature related to cohort studies that evaluated the association between the intake of ultra-processed foods, according to the NOVA classification, and the increase in the components of metabolic syndrome and body fat in children and adolescents. METHODS: We consulted the PubMed, Scielo, Lilacs, and ScienceDirect databases and selected cohort studies that met the main objective of this review and included the age group of interest. We used an adaptation of the Newcastle-Ottawa scale to evaluate cohort studies. RESULTS: Of 383 articles identified, 367 were excluded after reading the title, abstract, and methodology. Only nine met the selection criteria defined for this review. Of the nine articles, two reported a positive association between high consumption of ultra-processed foods and total cholesterol levels; one reported a positive association with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, one with triacylglycerols, one with diastolic blood pressure, three with body mass index, two with waist circumference, and two with body fat. CONCLUSIONS: Seven of nine studies found at least one association with components of metabolic syndrome. This highlights the importance of early intervention to prevent non-communicable diseases in the future.