Nearly all pregnant women may be exposed to the estrogen-mimicking toxin ZEN, which is prevalent in food and potentially increasing with climate change. Higher exposure levels correlate with certain diets and lifestyles, prompting calls for both dietary caution and food regulation.
A study published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology found that nearly all pregnant women are exposed to the fungal toxin zearalenone (ZEN), which acts like estrogen in the body and can disrupt reproduction in certain animals.
Researchers from Rutgers and the University of Rochester detected ZEN or its metabolites in 97 percent of urine samples from pregnant women and 84 percent of placentas.
ZEN is a type of mycoestrogen, an estrogen-like compound produced by certain molds that contaminate grains, meats, and processed foods worldwide. It’s most common in crops such as corn, wheat, and barley. While well-studied in animals, where it can cause reproductive issues, less is known about its effects in humans.
“We’re just at the beginnings of studying how these compounds affect human bodies in all stages of development,” said Zorimar Rivera-Núñez, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and senior author of the study.
The Estrogen-Mimicking Effects of Zearalenone
ZEN is so structurally like the hormone 17β-estradiol that it binds with estrogen receptors. Large doses reduce the number and size of offspring in cattle, pigs, mice, and rats. Paradoxically, these compounds also promote growth in livestock after birth, so much so that American farmers routinely dose cattle with a synthetic version of ZEN.
To study exposure levels during pregnancy, the researchers collected urine samples from 317 women in Rochester, N.Y. They also gathered 271 placenta samples and asked study participants about lifestyle choices, such as their typical diets.
Women with higher body mass indexes and those who had previously given birth tended to have higher ZEN levels in their urine.
Diet also affected exposure. Women with healthier diets, particularly those eating more protein and vegetables, had lower exposure levels. Diets higher in ultra-processed foods were associated with increased ZEN concentrations.
“For every 1 percent higher ultra-processed food consumption, there was a higher exposure to mycoestrogen,” said lead author Carolyn Kinkade, who studied zearalenone for her PhD thesis in the Rutgers School of Graduate Studies Exposure Science program.
Rising Concern Over Endocrine Disruptors
The study appears amid increasing concerns about endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the environment. Unlike many of those other chemicals, ZEN has long been found in our food, but exposure may be increasing because of modern food production and climate change.
“This is climate-change-related exposure,” Rivera-Núñez said. “Current mycotoxin data predict that the levels of these chemicals will increase as we get warmer temperatures and weather.”
Some cell studies suggest ZEN may be more potent than other known endocrine disruptors such as BPA or phthalates. However, its health effects in humans remain unclear. Previous research by the team found associations between ZEN exposure and altered sex hormone levels in pregnant women and umbilical cord blood.
The researchers are continuing to investigate potential health impacts. Upcoming studies will examine associations with pregnancy weight gain, placental development, and child growth and development.
“Moving forward, we would like to expand what we’re doing now to look at children’s health all the way to puberty,” Rivera-Núñez said.
For now, the findings may provide another reason to eat a healthy diet during pregnancy, the researchers said, though they noted that ZEN is so prevalent in food that we would need to create regulations aiming to control the presence of mycoestrogens in the food chain to reduce population exposure.
“People who want to reduce their exposure can do so by reducing their consumption of ultra-processed foods overall,” Kinkade said.
Reference: “Sociodemographic and dietary predictors of maternal and placental mycoestrogen concentrations in a US pregnancy cohort” by Carolyn W. Kinkade, Anita Brinker, Brian Buckley, Olivia Waysack, I. Diana Fernandez, Amber Kautz, Ying Meng, Huishan Shi, Jessica Brunner, Pamela Ohman-Strickland, Susan W. Groth, Thomas G. O’Connor, Lauren M. Aleksunes, Emily S. Barrett and Zorimar Rivera-Núñez, 4 October 2024, Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology.
DOI: 10.1038/s41370-024-00722-6
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1 Comment
As a now eighty year old lay victim, investigator, discoverer and activist, I’m now curious if the biomarkers for Zearalenone (ZEN), 17ß-estradiol (E2) and the phytoestrogen in soy are sufficiently unique to distinguish between the three, minimally. Resultant of my personally becoming mysteriously, seriously ill in early 1981 I eventually learned that by the early 1970s about 95% of phytoestrogen rich US soy was being processed more cheaply with toxic hexane with some residue, said to be ‘safe’ by the FDA.
Generally addressing the rather sudden outbreak of US female breast cancer by 1979 (ACS and NCI data) and obesity by 1990 (CDC/NCHS data) I’m now additionally curious of whether or not added cultured “free” MSG (FDA approved for expanded use as an alleged “flavor enhancer” in 1980) can aggravate problems with mycoestrogens as it does with my nearly subclinical non-IgE-mediated food allergy reactions? Regardless, with two and a half generations of young Americans already exposed to FDA approved phytoestrogen and added MSG, it appears there is a lot more to factor-in to your research in 2024 than just a few hundred expectant mothers.