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Transplacental Transfer of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Identified in Paired Maternal and Cord Sera Using Suspect and Nontarget Screening
journal contribution
posted on 2020-02-25, 14:43 authored by Yuqian Li, Nanyang Yu, Letian Du, Wei Shi, Hongxia Yu, Maoyong Song, Si WeiNovel
per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in various environmental
media have attracted increasing attention; however, the information
regarding PFASs exposure in pregnant women and fetuses is insufficient.
In this study, we built and applied suspect and nontarget screening
strategies based on the mass difference of the CF2, CF2O, and CH2CF2 units to select potential
novel PFASs from 117 paired maternal and cord sera. In total, 10 legacy
PFASs and 19 novel PFASs from 10 classes were identified to be above
confidence levels 3, among which 14 were not previously reported in
human serum. Novel PFASs accounted for a considerable percentage of
total PFASs in pregnant women and can be transferred to fetuses at
non-negligible concentrations (i.e., 27.9% and 30.3% of total PFAS
intensities in maternal and cord sera, respectively). The transplacental
transfer efficiency (TTE) of PFASs showed a U-shape trend in the series
of perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids, perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids,
and unsaturated perfluorinated alcohols. The TTE of novel PFASs is
suggested to be structure-dependent, based on a flexible docking experiment.
This study provides comprehensive TTE information on legacy and novel
PFASs for the first time, and additional toxicity studies are needed
to evaluate the risk of novel PFASs further.