The combined effect of persistent organic pollutants in the serum POP mixture in Greenlandic Inuit: xenoestrogenic, xenoandrogenic and dioxin-like transactivities

Abstract

Greenlandic Inuit have high body burden of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). We analyzed the combined effect of the actual lipophilic serum POP mixture on estrogen-, androgen- and aryl hydrocarbon-receptor functions as effect biomarkers, and the associations between the effect biomarkers and serum POPs, and lifestyle characteristics. The serum POPs were extracted from 232 Inuit from Ittoqqortoormiit, Narsaq and Qeqertarsuaq. The POP-related receptor transactivities correlated negatively to the POP levels and were associated to the lifestyle characteristics. The POP-related receptor transactivities can be used as effect biomarkers. The serum POPs have hormone disruptive potentials.

Keywords::

• Persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
• xenoestrogenic
• xenoandrogenic
• dioxin-like transactivities
• Greenlandic Inuit

Acknowledgements

We thank Jens C. Hansen for scientific support and Henning S. Pedersen for sampling. Thanks to Bente Deutch for evaluating the POP data and questionnaires concerning lifestyle characteristics and establishing the database. Thanks to Yi Cao for technical support.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. This study is part of the project “AMAP Human Health Effects Monitoring Programme” and was supported by DANCEA, The Danish Environmental Ministry.