Exposure to ambient air pollution during pregnancy and inflammatory biomarkers in maternal and umbilical cord blood: The Healthy Start study.

Background: Air pollution exposure during pregnancy has been associated with adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes. Inflammation has been proposed as a potential link. We estimated associations between air pollution exposure during pregnancy and inflammatory biomarkers in maternal and cord blood. We evaluated whether maternal inflammation was associated with infant outcomes.

Methods: Among 515 mother-infant dyads in the Healthy Start study (2009-2014), trimester-long, 7- and 30-day average concentrations of particulate matter ≤2.5 μm (PM) and ozone (O) during pregnancy were estimated, using inverse-distance-weighted interpolation. Inflammatory biomarkers were measured in maternal blood in mid-pregnancy (C-reactive protein [CRP], Interleukin [IL]-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α [TNFα]) and in cord blood at delivery (CRP, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 [MCP-1], and TNFα). We used linear regression to estimate associations between pollutants and inflammatory biomarkers and maternal inflammatory biomarkers and infant weight and body composition.

Results: There were positive associations between PM during certain exposure periods and maternal IL-6 and TNFα. There were negative associations between recent O and maternal CRP, IL-6, and TNFα and positive associations between trimester-long O exposure and maternal inflammatory biomarkers, though some 95% confidence intervals included the null. Patterns were inconsistent for associations between PM and O and cord blood inflammatory biomarkers. No consistent associations between maternal inflammatory biomarkers and infant outcomes were identified.

Conclusions: Air pollution exposure during pregnancy may impact maternal inflammation. Further investigations should examine the health consequences for women and infants of elevated inflammatory biomarkers associated with air pollution exposure during pregnancy.