Prenatal selenium status, neonatal cerebellum measures and child neurodevelopment at the age of 18 months
Introduction
The rapidly developing brain is particularly sensitive to certain nutrient supplies, such as selenium (Se) concentration (Chen and Berry, 2003; Georgieff, 2007; Rayman, 2012). Selenium seems to have greater effects on brain development in comparison to other microelements (Georgieff, 2007; Nyaradi et al., 2013). Moreover, it is of high importance when it comes to biosynthesis of several selenoproteins (Roman et al., 2014).Selenium is an essential component of various enzymes, particularly glutathione peroxidases and thioredoxin reductases that act as antioxidants (Chen and Berry, 2003; Reilly, 2006).
Selenium is transported across the placenta by passive diffusion down a concentration gradient (Nandakumaran et al., 2003). It is particularly well maintained in brain, even in the presence of lower dietary supply (Rayman, 2012).
Deficiency of selenium has been shown to affect the neurological development in animal studies, however human researches in this area are scarce. Maternal erythrocyte selenium (Ery-Se) concentration in late pregnancy was positively associated with children's cognitive function at the age of 1.5 years, as well as at 5 and 10 years of age (Skrӧder et al., 2015; Skrӧder et al., 2017). Furthermore, similar associations were indicated between maternal plasma selenium during pregnancy and children's psychomotor functions within the first years of life (Polanska et al., 2016).
To the best of our knowledge, up to the present date there is no dependable biomarker that can scientifically predict whether deficiency or toxicity of an essential micronutrient may cause fetal/neonatal brain morphological changes. The current body of literature is mostly based on functional/psychological outcomes of prenatal exposure to various micro and macro nutrients (Nyaradi et al., 2013; Polanska et al., 2017; Skrӧder et al., 2017; Yang et al., 2013). Our previous studies, regarding methylmercury, suggested that prenatal low-level mercury exposure influences brain development – detected as decreased size of cerebellum (Čače et al., 2011; Prpić et al., 2017).
To deduce, the aim of the present study was to investigate association between prenatal selenium status, neonatal cerebellum measures and child neurodevelopment at the age of 18 months. Moreover, to investigate whether neonatal cerebellum measures could be used as a potential biomarker for selenium homeostasis during pregnancy.
Section snippets
Study design and population
Two-hundred-five (205) pregnant women (permanent residents of the study area – the coastal city of Rijeka and its county Primorsko-goranska, Croatia for at least 2 years) and their children (evaluated in the newborn's age and at the age of 18 months) were recruited as a part of birth cohort study the EU 6thFramework Programme, Public Health Impact of Long-term Low level Mixed Element Exposure in Susceptible Population Strata (PHIME). Detailed description of the study protocol, along with
Results and discussion
Average values of studied variables are presented in Table 2.
The scores of composite cognitive, language and motor development were within the normal limits (Table 2) (Bayley N., 2006). There were no significant differences regarding gender, except significantly higher language BSID-III test scores among female children group, which is physiological at that age (Johnson et al., 2014).
Level of Se required for sufficient activity of plasma glutathione peroxidase is 63.1 ng/mL, hence latter is
Conclusion
To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first one investigating the association between neonatal brain measures and selenium levels in mother-child pairs. Our results indicate the possibility that prenatal selenium intake can modify cerebellum length and width (measured by cranial ultrasonography); however further studies are needed for drawing the final conclusions regarding the latter observation. Since standard cranial ultrasonopgraphy and even more sophisticated ultrasonography
Research ethics
The work described in this manuscript has been carried out in accordance with the Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki). The research protocol has been reviewed and approved by the two ethics committee; Ethics Committee of the University of Rijeka and Ethics Committee of the University Hospital Centre Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia.
Authors’ contributions
All the authors have contributed equally and have given final approval of the version to be published.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
The financial support from the following funding sources is acknowledged:
1. European Commission FP6, Grant number: FOOD-CT-2006–016253: Public health impact of long-term, low-level mixed element exposure in susceptible population strata (PHIME).
2. University of Rijeka, Grant number: 13.06.1.2.25, Effects of environmental, nutritive and genetics factor in children prenatally exposed to methylmercury: a prospective follow up study.
3. European Commission FP7, grant number: 603946: Health and
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2022, Environment InternationalCitation Excerpt :Prenatal exposure to arsenic (As), Hg, magnesium (Mn), and cadmium (Cd), and early-childhood exposure to Al and Pb were associated with childhood neurodevelopment (Barbone et al., 2019; Kao et al., 2021; Lee et al., 2018a; Levin-Schwartz et al., 2021; Ma et al., 2021a; Ma et al. 2021b). Recent studies indicate that elements such as zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), strontium (Sr), and selenium (Se) may be associated with childhood neurodevelopmental outcomes (Amorós et al., 2019; Li et al., 2020; Močenić et al., 2019; Quezada-Pinedo et al., 2021; Yang et al., 2013). Most studies have focused on revealing the health effects of single elements or a mixture of several candidates.