Chemicals in your living room cause diabetes

A new study from UC Riverside shows that flame retardants found in almost every home in America cause mice to give birth to offspring that becomes diabetic.

These flame retardants, called PBDEs, have been linked to diabetes in adult humans. This study shows that PBDEs cause diabetes in mice exposed only to the chemical by their mothers.

“The mice received PBDEs from their mothers while they were in the womb and as young babies through breast milk,” said Elena Kozlova, lead author of the study and doctoral candidate in neuroscience at UC Riverside. “Remarkably, in adulthood, long after exposure to chemicals, female offspring developed diabetes.”

The results of the study were published in the journal Scientific reports.

PBDEs are common household chemicals added to furniture, upholstery, and electronics to prevent fires. They are released into the air people breathe in their homes, cars, and airplanes because their chemical bond to surfaces is weak.

“PBDEs are everywhere in the house. They are impossible to avoid altogether, ”said UCR neuroscientist and corresponding study author Dr. Margarita Curras-Collazo.

“Even though the most harmful PBDEs have been banned from production and import in the United States, improper recycling of the products that contain them continued to leach PBDEs into water, soil and air. As a result, researchers continue to find them in human blood. , fat, fetal tissue, as well as breast milk in countries around the world. “

Given their previous association with diabetes in adult men and women and in pregnant women, Curras-Collazo and his team wanted to know if these chemicals could have harmful effects on the children of mothers exposed to PBDEs. But such experiments can only be performed on mice.

Diabetes causes high levels of blood glucose or sugar in the blood. After a meal, the pancreas releases insulin, a hormone that helps cells use the glucose sugar from food. When cells are resistant to insulin, it does not work as expected, and glucose levels remain high in the blood even if no food has been eaten.

Chronically high levels of glucose can damage the eyes, kidneys, heart, and nerves. It can also lead to life-threatening conditions.

“This study is unique because we tested both the dams and their offspring for all characteristics of the diabetes presented in humans,” Curras-Collazo said. “This kind of testing has not been done before, especially on female offspring.”

The researchers gave the mothers of mice PBDEs at low levels comparable to the average human environmental exposure during pregnancy and lactation.

All babies developed glucose intolerance, high fasting glucose levels, insulin insensitivity, and low blood insulin levels, all of which are hallmarks of diabetes. In addition, the researchers also found that babies had high levels of endocannabinoids in the liver, which are molecules associated with appetite, metabolism, and obesity.

Although the mothers developed some glucose intolerance, they were not as affected as their offspring.

“Our results indicate that chemicals in the environment, like PBDEs, can be transferred from mother to offspring, and their exposure early in the developmental period is detrimental to health,” Curras-Collazo said.

The research team believes that future longitudinal studies in humans are needed to determine the long-term consequences of early exposure to PBDEs.

“We need to know whether human babies exposed to PBDEs before and after birth grow into children and adults with diabetes,” Kozlova said.

In the meantime, Curras-Collazo advises people to limit exposure to PBDEs by taking steps such as washing hands before eating, vacuuming frequently, and purchasing furniture and other products that do not contain them. She also hopes that pregnant women are knowledgeable about stealthy environmental chemicals that can affect their unborn and developing children, as well as their breast milk.

“We believe that the benefits babies get from breast milk far outweigh the risks of transmitting PBDEs to children. We do not recommend reducing breastfeeding,” she said. “But let’s advocate for the protection of breast milk and our bodies from the killer chemicals of the couch.”