Associations of prenatal urinary melamine, melamine analogues, and aromatic amines with gestational duration and fetal growth in the ECHO Cohort

Giehae Choi; Xiaoshuang Xun; Deborah H Bennett; John D Meeker; Rachel Morello-Frosch; Sheela Sathyanarayana; Susan L Schantz; Leonardo Trasande; Deborah Watkins; Edo D Pellizzari; Wenlong Li; Kurunthachalam Kannan; Tracey J Woodruff; Jessie P Buckley; ECHO Cohort Consortium

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2024.109227

Associations of prenatal urinary melamine, melamine analogues, and aromatic amines with gestational duration and fetal growth in the ECHO Cohort

Environ Int. 2024 Dec 24:195:109227. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2024.109227. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 615 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States.
² Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University, 615 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States.
³ Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California Davis, Medical Sciences 1C, Davis, CA 95616, United States.
⁴ Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States.
⁵ School of Public Health and Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Mulford Hall, 130 Hilgard Way, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, 3980 15th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98195, United States; Seattle Children's Research Institute, 1900 9th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101, United States.
⁷ Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and Department of Comparative Biosciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61802, United States.
⁸ Departments of Pediatrics and Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and NYU Wagner School of Pediatrics, 550 1st Ave., New York, NY 10016, United States.
⁹ Fellow Program, Research Triangle Institute, 3040 E Cornwallis Rd, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, United States.
¹⁰ Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12201, United States.
¹¹ Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California San Francisco, 550 16th Street, Box 0132, San Francisco, CA 94158, United States. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹² Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB#7435, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7435, United States. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39740267
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2024.109227

Abstract

Melamine, its analogues, and aromatic amines (AAs) were commonly detected in a previous study of pregnant women in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Cohort. While these chemicals have identified toxicities, little is known about their influences on fetal development. We measured these chemicals in gestational urine samples in 3 ECHO cohort sites to assess associations with birth outcomes (n = 1,231). We estimated beta coefficients and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using adjusted linear mixed models with continuous dilution-standardized concentrations (log₂ transformed and scaled by interquartile range, IQR) or binary indicators for detection. As secondary analyses, we repeated analyses using categorical outcomes. Forty-one of 45 analytes were detected in at least one sample, with > 95 % detection of melamine, cyanuric acid, ammelide, and aniline. Higher melamine concentration was associated with longer gestational age (β^ per IQR increase of log₂-transformed: 0.082 [95 % CI: -0.012, 0.177]; 2nd vs 1st tertile: 0.173 [-0.048, 0.394]; 3rd vs 1st tertile: 0.186 [-0.035, 0.407]). Similarly in secondary analyses using categorical outcomes, an IQR increase in log₂(melamine) was associated with 1.22 [0.99, 1.50] higher odds of post-term (>40 & ≤42 weeks) as compared to full-term (≥38 & ≤40 weeks). Several AAs were associated with birthweight and gestational length, with the direction of associations varying by AA. Some stronger associations were observed in females. Our findings suggest melamine and its analogs and AAs may influence gestational length and birthweight.

Keywords: Aromatic amines; Birthweight; Cyanuric acid; Gestational age; Large for gestational age; Low birthweight; Melamine; Preterm birth; Small for gestational age.