Individual and Mixtures of Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Organochlorine Pesticides Exposure on Metabolic Syndrome Among Chinese Adults

Abstract

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are commonly detected in humans due to their persistence and bioaccumulation and suspected risk factors for metabolic syndrome (MetS). However, the relationship of PCB and OCP mixtures with MetS remains poorly understood. We aim to investigate the relationships between exposure to individuals and mixtures of PCB/OCP and the risk of incident MetS. The present study included 1996 adults from the Health Management Center of Tongji Hospital, Wuhan, China. We measured 35 PCBs and OCPs in serum using gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and the detection frequencies of eight PCBs and OCPs were more than 50%. MetS was defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program's Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. A total of 338 (16.9%) participants were diagnosed with MetS. Multivariate linear regression analyses revealed that β-HCH, p,p′-DDE, PCB-52, PCB-153, PCB-180, ΣNDL-PCBs, and ΣPCBs were positively correlated with increased odds of MetS. Furthermore, quantile-based g computation (qgcomp) analyses showed that PCB and OCP mixtures were positively associated with the risk of MetS (OR = 2.28; 95% CI: 2.05-2.51), and p,p′-DDE was the most important contributor. These findings indicated that PCB and OCP exposures, both individually and as mixtures, increased MetS risk, particularly p,p′-DDE. Prospective studies are needed to confirm these results.

Keywords: metabolic syndrome, organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, joint exposure