TOXICITY OF METHYL MERCURY IN A FISH EATING POPULATION

甲基汞对食鱼人群的毒性

• 批准号: 6382339
• 负责人: THOMAS W CLARKSON
• 金额: $ 85.46万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-07-21 至 2005-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6382339
• 关键词: clinical research; developmental neurobiology; developmental nutrition; diet; environmental toxicology; fish; food chain contamination; human subject; mercury; mother /embryo /fetus nutrition; neuroprotectants; nutrition related tag

Methyl mercury is considered to be a developmental neurotoxicant. However, contrary to expected findings, a longitudinal study in the Seychelles has revealed a positive association between increasing mercury levels, measured in maternal hair prenatally and in infant hair, and enhanced child development. Given that fish consumption the Seychelles is high, and that fish intakes correlate with hair mercury levels, we hypothesize that certain micronutrients in fish may be (a) beneficial the child development and (b) protective against the neurotoxic effects of methyl mercury. We propose to test this hypothesis in a new study of 250 mother-infant pairs recruited in the Seychelles during the first trimester and followed longitudinally until the infants reach 29 months of age using the most sensitive developmental endpoints available. The four likely micronutrients, based on their levels in fish and their documented roles in brain development and prioritized in terms of biological plausibility, are the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids principally docosahexaenoic acid, iodine, iron and the amino acid taurine. Also, selenium may play a role as a modifier of the toxic action of methyl mercury and, as such, will be included with mercury as an independent variable. Mercury in maternal and infant hair will continue to be used as our primary measure of prenatal and post natal exposures. In addition to direct measures of mercury, micronutrient status and selenium levels in biological samples from mother and infant, a diet survey including fish consumption will be made at selected pre- and postnatal stages of this study. These data will allow us to characterize metabolic interrelationship between fish intake and levels of mercury and micronutrients that should further test the plausibility of our hypothesis. This proposed study should break new scientific grounds on the interrelationship between nutrition and toxicology. Specifically, we expect that data emanating from the project to indicate that nutritional variables must be taken into account in any evaluation of the neurotoxicity of methyl mercury when fish is the principal source of human exposure to mercury.

甲基汞被认为是一种发育神经毒物。然而，与预期结果相反，塞舌尔的一项纵向研究显示，产前母亲头发和婴儿头发中汞含量的增加与儿童发育的促进之间存在正相关关系。 鉴于塞舌尔的鱼类消费量很高，并且鱼类摄入量与头发汞含量相关，我们假设鱼类中的某些微量营养素可能（a）有益于儿童发育和（b）防止甲基汞的神经毒性作用。我们建议在一项新的研究中检验这一假设，该研究在塞舌尔招募了 250 对母婴，这些母婴在妊娠前三个月期间使用最敏感的发育终点进行纵向跟踪，直到婴儿达到 29 个月大。 根据其在鱼类中的含量及其在大脑发育中所记录的作用，并根据生物学合理性进行优先排序，四种可能的微量营养素是长链多不饱和脂肪酸，主要是二十二碳六烯酸、碘、铁和氨基酸牛磺酸。 此外，硒可能起到调节甲基汞毒性作用的作用，因此，将作为独立变量包含在汞中。 孕产妇和婴儿头发中的汞将继续用作我们产前和产后接触的主要衡量标准。除了直接测量母亲和婴儿生物样本中的汞、微量营养素状况和硒水平外，还将在本研究的选定产前和产后阶段进行包括鱼类消费在内的饮食调查。 这些数据将使我们能够描述鱼类摄入量与汞和微量营养素水平之间的代谢相互关系，这应该进一步检验我们假设的合理性。这项拟议的研究应该为营养与毒理学之间的相互关系开辟新的科学依据。具体来说，我们预计该项目产生的数据表明，当鱼类是人类接触汞的主要来源时，在评估甲基汞的神经毒性时必须考虑营养变量。