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The Association Between Serum Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Incident Cardiovascular Disease Among Type 2 Diabetes
Jun An1, Shiyang Zhang1, Xu Cheng1
1Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health for Incubating, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei, China.
Background:
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the general population. However, it is unclear whether PCB exposure increases the additional risk of CVD among type 2 diabetes (T2D) cases. This study aims to investigate the associations between serum concentrations of PCBs and incident CVD among T2D cases.
Methods:
The study population was derived from the Dongfeng-Tongji cohort in 2008 and followed up until December 31, 2018, with a total of 2806 participants with T2D included; 1180 of them developed CVD during the follow-up. Cox proportional hazard regression models and quantile g-computation method were conducted for the associations of serum PCB levels with incident CVD risk.
Results:
Compared with the first quartile, the risk of incident CVD was increased by 25%, 30%, and 28% in the fourth quartile of serum concentrations of PCB28, PCB52, and PCB101, respectively. Similar results were obtained for lower-chlorinated PCBs (PCB28 + PCB52 + PCB101) with a hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of 1.257 (1.063, 1.486) and 1.346 (1.139, 1.589) in the third and fourth quartiles, respectively (P trend = .001). Quantile g-computation indicated that mixed exposure to PCBs increased the risk of CVD, and the top 3 weights of PCB congeners were PCB101, PCB52, and PCB28.
Conclusion:
Serum PCB independently increased the risk of incident CVD among T2D cases, in which lower-chlorinated PCBs played a dominant role.
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