Elsevier

NeuroToxicology

Volume 29, Issue 5, September 2008, Pages 776-782
NeuroToxicology

Associations of maternal long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, methyl mercury, and infant development in the Seychelles Child Development Nutrition Study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuro.2008.06.002Get rights and content

Abstract

Fish consumption during gestation can provide the fetus with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) and other nutrients essential for growth and development of the brain. However, fish consumption also exposes the fetus to the neurotoxicant, methyl mercury (MeHg). We studied the association between these fetal exposures and early child development in the Seychelles Child Development Nutrition Study (SCDNS). Specifically, we examined a priori models of Ω-3 and Ω-6 LCPUFA measures in maternal serum to test the hypothesis that these LCPUFA families before or after adjusting for prenatal MeHg exposure would reveal associations with child development assessed by the BSID-II at ages 9 and 30 months. There were 229 children with complete outcome and covariate data available for analysis. At 9 months, the PDI was positively associated with total Ω-3 LCPUFA and negatively associated with the ratio of Ω-6/Ω-3 LCPUFA. These associations were stronger in models adjusted for prenatal MeHg exposure. Secondary models suggested that the MeHg effect at 9 months varied by the ratio of Ω-6/Ω-3 LCPUFA. There were no significant associations between LCPUFA measures and the PDI at 30 months. There were significant adverse associations, however, between prenatal MeHg and the 30-month PDI when the LCPUFA measures were included in the regression analysis. The BSID-II mental developmental index (MDI) was not associated with any exposure variable. These data support the potential importance to child development of prenatal availability of Ω-3 LCPUFA present in fish and of LCPUFA in the overall diet. Furthermore, they indicate that the beneficial effects of LCPUFA can obscure the determination of adverse effects of prenatal MeHg exposure in longitudinal observational studies.

Introduction

Fish consumption during gestation can provide the fetus with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) and other nutrients essential for growth and development of the brain. However, fish consumption also exposes the fetus to the neurotoxicant, methyl mercury (MeHg). The impact of combined LCPUFA and MeHg from fish consumption during pregnancy may lead to contradictory influences on child development outcomes, as suggested in a companion paper by (Davidson et al., 2008).

All fish contain small amounts of MeHg. The developmental effects of prenatal exposure to MeHg from maternal consumption of a diet high in fish are unclear. Epidemiological studies from New Zealand (Kjellstrom et al., 1989) and the Faeroe Islands (Grandjean et al., 1997, Debes et al., 2006), reported subtle adverse effects on child development outcomes. In contrast, results from the Seychelles Child Development Study have found no consistent neurodevelopmental or neuropathological impairments (Davidson et al., 1998, Myers et al., 2003, Lapham et al., 1995). In fact, enhanced child development was correlated with increasing maternal hair MeHg levels for some endpoints. This apparently anomalous finding might be related to the beneficial effects of nutrients, such as LCPUFA intake, from fish.

The LCPUFA, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6 Ω-3) and arachidonic acid (AA, 20:4 Ω-6) accumulate preferentially in the developing brain where they are major structural components of brain lipids and play important functional roles in visual and neural processes (Innis, 2005a, Innis, 2005b). The Ω-3 LCPUFA, DHA, can affect neurotransmitter metabolism, ion channel activity, signalling pathways and gene expression, while the Ω-6 LCPUFA, AA, plays a role in cell signalling and synaptic transmission via specific eicosanoids and leukotrienes (Innis, 2003). Diffusion to the fetus of LCPUFA from circulating maternal triglycerides and free fatty acids is thought to occur via lipoprotein receptors, lipoprotein lipase activity, placental intracellular lipase activities and plasma membrane fatty acid binding protein (Herrera, 2002). Placental transfer of LCPUFA occurs predominantly during the last trimester when brain growth is most rapid.

The endogenous syntheses of DHA and, especially AA, are not trivial in the preterm infant (Carnielli et al., 2007). However, it appears that the fetus cannot synthesize adequate amounts of DHA or AA from their respective essential fatty acid precursors, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3 Ω-3) and linoleic acid (LA 18:2 Ω-6), respectively (Carlson, 2001). Data from randomized controlled trials indicate that maternal supplementation with high dose DHA (>1 g/day) can significantly increase DHA status in offspring in contrast to maternal supplementation with lower doses of DHA or high doses (>10 g/day) of ALA (Decsi and Koletzko, 2005). One randomized controlled trial evaluated children born to women who took cod liver oil rich in the Ω-3 DHA during pregnancy and compared them with children whose mothers had taken maize oil rich in the Ω6 LA (Helland et al., 2003). Children whose mothers received cod liver oil scored higher on the Mental Processing Composite of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) at age 4 years. Dunstan et al. (2006) showed that children aged 2.5 years born to mothers who were supplemented with Ω-3 LCPUFA from week 20 of gestation until delivery had significantly improved eye and hand coordination compared to those whose mothers received placebo (olive oil). Judge et al. (2007) studied infants born to mothers who consumed DHA-containing foods during pregnancy and compared them to infants whose mothers consumed placebo (maize oil) containing foods. Those receiving DHA-containing foods scored better for problem solving, but not for visual recognition memory, at age 9 months

These experimental studies of supplemental DHA, the Ω-3 LCPUFA found in fish, are supported by observational epidemiological studies. The ALSPAC study in the UK reported that children of women who consumed more fish during pregnancy had higher developmental scores at age15 months (Daniels et al., 2004). More recently they reported that high (>340 g per week) maternal seafood consumption was associated with improved child development at age 7 years (Hibbeln et al., 2007). They concluded that guidelines from some advisories to limit seafood consumption during pregnancy could possibly be detrimental. In the US, Oken et al. (2005) reported that infants whose mothers had higher fish intake in the second trimester had higher percent novelty preference scores on visual recognition memory testing at 6 months of age.

Neonatal AA status is reported to be less dependent on maternal status than DHA (Otto et al., 1997). This finding fits with the recent experimental confirmation that endogenous AA synthesis from LA in the preterm newborn is significantly higher than DHA synthesis from ALA (Carnielli et al., 2007). Both LA and ALA compete for the same desaturation enzymes in the biosynthetic pathways to AA and DHA respectively. Consequently, the ratio between the relative amounts of Ω-6 and Ω-3 LCPUFA (Ω-6/Ω-3 ratio) might be important in neurodevelopment. The precursor LCPUFA, LA and ALA, are found in varying amounts in different vegetable fats and oils, but preformed AA and DHA are found primarily in animal lipids. Fish is a particularly rich source of DHA and its immediate precursor, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5 Ω-3). Although many studies have indicated a role in neurodevelopment for DHA, we have been unable to find any data linking EPA to neurodevelopment.

Maternal fish consumption brings nutritional benefits, particularly from LCPUFA. However, it also brings possible risk to the developing fetal brain in the form of MeHg, a toxicant known to accumulate in aquatic food chains worldwide (Myers et al., 2003, Clarkson and Strain, 2004). The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimates that one billion people, most of them living in developing countries, depend on fish as their main protein source (FAO, 2000). This makes fish consumption during pregnancy a subject of scientific interest and public health concern (Cohen et al., 2005a, Cohen et al., 2005b, Mozaffarian and Rimm, 2006).

In order to address the risks and benefits of fish consumption, we studied the relationship of maternal LCPUFA and prenatal MeHg exposure to children's neurodevelopment in a longitudinal observational study in a population consuming large quantities of fish. In a companion paper (Davidson et al., 2008) we report on the covariate adjusted effects of two LCPUFA, AA and DHA, and other nutritional and dietary measures on outcome measures. Here we expand our enquiry by focusing on the associations of the Ω-3 and Ω-6 LCPUFA (DHA, AA, EPA, LA, and ALA) with the BSID-II outcomes.

Section snippets

Subjects

We recruited 300 women during their first visit to the ante-natal clinic on Mahé, the main island in Seychelles, during 2001. Inclusion criteria included age over 16 years, native born Seychellois, and residing on Mahé. Six infants were excluded, 4 with major congenital anomalies and 1 set of twins. The study setting and methods are described in detail in the companion paper (Davidson et al., 2008). We include only those methods pertinent to the secondary analysis reported here. The study was

Results

In this cohort of 229 mother-infant pairs, the mean maternal hair Hg concentration was 5.7 ppm (S.D. = 3.7; range 0.2–18.5). Mothers reported consuming an average of 9 meals containing fish per week or an estimated 537 g of fish per week. Table 1 shows the characteristics of the mothers and children studied. Table 2 shows summary statistics for the LCPUFA status of mothers and the BSID outcomes for the children. There were no mothers in this cohort with evidence of clinical nutritional

Discussion

We found that maternal serum Ω-3 LCPUFA as measured during the last trimester was positively associated with the psychomotor development measured at 9 months of age as maternal values for Ω-3 increased, the PDI scores improved. Psychomotor development was also inversely related to the Ω-6/Ω-3 ratio. As the Ω-6/Ω-3 ratio increased the PDI scores declined. There were no significant associations with the MDI at 9 or 30 months or with the PDI at the 30-month evaluation. The associations we found

Conflict of interest

None.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported exclusively by grants 5-R01-ES010219 and 2-T32-ES007271 from the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, and by the Government of Seychelles.

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