Exposure to Metals, Immune-Inflammatory Response and Oxidative Stress in the Childhood and Environmental Pollutants Project and the Bruminha Project.

Prenatal and childhood exposure to metals has been linked to reduced immune response to vaccines, asthma, allergies and autoimmune diseases in children (Lin et al., 2017; Rundle et al., 2018; Wu et al., 2019; Jedrychowski et al., 2013; Kim et al., 2013; Kindgren et al., 2019). Metals have been classified as potential immunotoxins associated with immunosuppressive and immunostimulating effects, and oxidative stress has been considered the underlying metal immunotoxicity mechanism (Chen et al., 2008). Cross-sectional and cohort epidemiological studies have suggested that metals in cord blood and in children increase oxidative stress and inflammation marker levels (Ni et al., 2014; Luna et al., 2010; Ashley-Martin et al., 2015). However, few studies have evaluated the concomitant relationship between metal exposure, immune-inflammatory response and oxidative stress. Given the above, this project aims to evaluate the relationship between metal levels in the umbilical cord blood of newborns and in the blood and urine of children enrolled in two independent cohort studies (Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Exposure to Environmental Pollutants on Child Health, the “PIPA Project”, and Longitudinal Study of Child Health in Brumadinho, MG, the “Bruminha Project”) and immune-inflammatory and oxidative stress biomarkers.

The aim of this study is to investigate the association between metals levels in the umbilical cord blood of children born at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Maternity School and in the blood and urine of children aged 0 to 6 years old living in communities impacted by mud residues of the Brumadinho disaster and immune-inflammatory response and oxidative stress biomarkers.