Environmental uranium exposures and cytokine profiles among mother-newborn baby pairs from the Navajo Birth Cohort Study

The Navajo Nation was heavily mined for uranium (U) during the cold-war leading to a legacy of >1100 abandoned U mining, milling and associated waste sites. The Navajo Birth Cohort Study was initiated to assess the effect of non-occupational legacy exposure to U during pregnancy on birth outcomes and child development. We report that 92% of babies with detectable urine U at birth were born from mothers who had urine U concentrations greater than national norms during pregnancy, indicative of prenatal exposure to U. To assess immune alterations associated with U exposure on both mothers and babies, we investigated associations between cytokine profiles and maternal U and associations of these measures with cytokine profiles in babies. Effect sizes for the differences in cytokine profiles were more evident among babies than mothers. Overall, there were seven cytokines (IFN-gamma, IL-1 beta, IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, GM-CSF, and TNF-alpha), for which the effect size for babies with higher than the national U concentrations was medium to large (ORs of 2.21 (1.08-4.52) through 1.71(0.76-3.83). In contrast, only three cytokines (IL-8, IL-12p70, and TNF-alpha) had effect sizes which almost reached medium strength (ORs of 1.64 (0.74-4.05) through 1.36 (0.65-2.87) in mothers with U above national norms. The effects of prenatal exposures to uranium and associated alterations in systemic immune responses resulting from U exposure could impact both maternal health as well as healthy child development through induction of inflammation, autoimmunity or other chronic diseases related to immune dysfunction that may affect long-term health.