Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors and Stress Hormones Across Pregnancy Trimesters: Links with Maternal Telomere Length

Exposure of pregnant women to stress and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) during pregnancy can have a substantial impact on mother and infant health. We investigated the concentrations of EDCs, such as parabens (PBs) and triclosan (TCS), as well as stress hormones (cortisone and cortisol), across pregnancy trimesters and examined their associations with maternal average telomere length (TL).

Hair samples from 49 postpartum women were analyzed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to quantify EDCs and stress hormone concentrations.

The mean methyl paraben concentrations in the hair of postpartum women were prevalent across all pregnancy trimesters, while butyl paraben was detected at the lowest levels. The mean concentration of PBs followed the order methyl > propyl > ethyl > benzyl > butyl paraben across pregnancy trimesters. We found that ethyl paraben and triclosan were each positively and significantly associated with cortisol levels in postpartum women's hair. Consistent with this, the mean cortisone concentration gradually increased from the first to the third pregnancy trimester, whereas cortisol reached the highest mean concentration at the second trimester. A significant positive association between cortisol and cortisone levels was observed. Further analyses revealed that mothers' average TL was positively associated with ethylparaben and triclosan levels and inversely associated with benzylparaben levels. Last but not least, we found that cortisol/cortisone levels were positively associated with postpartum women's TL in a statistically significant manner.

In the present study, prenatal exposure to stress hormones and EDCs appears to exert a statistically significant impact on maternal TL dynamics.