Effects of perinatal exposure to PCBs and dioxins on play behavior in Dutch children at school age
Open accessAbstract
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins are known as neurotoxic compounds that may modulate sex steroid hormones. Steroid hormones play a mediating role in brain development and may influence behaviors that show sex differences, such as childhood play behavior. In this study we evaluated the effects of perinatal exposure to environmental levels of PCBs and dioxins on childhood play behavior and whether the effects showed sex differences. As part of the follow-up to the Dutch PCB/dioxin study at school age, we used the Pre-School Activity Inventory (PSAI) to assess play behavior in the Rotterdam cohort (n = 207). The PSAI assesses masculine or feminine play behavior scored on three subscales: masculine, feminine, and composite. Prenatal exposure to PCBs was defined as the sum of PCB 118, 138, 153, and 180 in maternal and cord plasma and breast milk. For breast milk we measured additional PCBs as well as 17 dioxins. Respondents returned 160 questionnaires (age 7.5 years +/- 0.4). Effects of prenatal exposure to PCBs, measured in maternal and cord plasma, on the masculine and composite scales were different for boys and girls (p <.05). In boys, higher prenatal PCB levels were related with less masculinized play, assessed by the masculine scale (p(maternal) =.042; p(cord) =.001) and composite scale (p(cord) =.011), whereas in girls higher PCB levels were associated with more masculinized play, assessed by the composite scale (p(PCBmilk) =.028). Higher prenatal dioxin levels were associated with more feminized play in boys as well as girls, assessed by the feminine scale (p =.048). These effects suggest prenatal steroid hormone imbalances caused by prenatal exposure to environmental levels of PCBs, dioxins, and other related organochlorine compounds.
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Other manipulations such as prenatal protein deprivation, perinatal genistein exposure, prenatal PCB exposure, or maternal stress during gestation can also demasculinize play behavior.
“Other manipulations such as prenatal protein deprivation (Almeida et al. 1996), perinatal genistein exposure (Flynn et al. 2000), prenatal polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposure (Vreugdenhil et al. 2002), or maternal stress during gestation can also demasculinize play behavior (Ward and Stehm 1991).”
From Perinatal Exposure to Low Levels of the Environmental Antiandrogen Vinclozolin Alters Sex-Differentiated Social Play and Sexual Behaviors in the Rat (2005) · cites this paper as Vreugdenhil et al. 2002
Higher prenatal levels of PCBs are associated with less masculinized play behavior in Dutch schoolboys and more masculinized play in schoolgirls.
“higher prenatal levels of PCBs have been associated with less masculinized play behavior in Dutch schoolboys and more masculinized play in schoolgirls (Vreugdenhil et al. 2002).”
From Perinatal Exposure to Low Levels of the Environmental Antiandrogen Vinclozolin Alters Sex-Differentiated Social Play and Sexual Behaviors in the Rat (2005) · cites this paper as Vreugdenhil et al. 2002
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Prenatal stress feminizes juvenile play patterns in male rats
Ward, I. L., & Stehm, K. E. (1991) · Physiology & Behavior · doi:10.1016/0031-9384(91)90552-y · Cited by 125 · see citing works
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Foran, J. A., Carpenter, D. O., Hamilton, M. C., Knuth, B. A., & Schwager, S. J. (2005) · Environmental Health Perspectives · doi:10.1289/ehp.7626 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Sex-typical Play: Masculinization/Defeminization in Girls with an Autism Spectrum Condition
Knickmeyer, R. C., Wheelwright, S., & Baron-Cohen, S. B. (2008) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-007-0475-0 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Perinatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls alters social behaviors in rats
Jolous-Jamshidi, B., Cromwell, H. C., McFarland, A. M., & Meserve, L. A. (2010) · Toxicology Letters · doi:10.1016/j.toxlet.2010.08.015 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Nowack, N., Wittsiepe, J., Kasper-Sonnenberg, M., Wilhelm, M., & Schölmerich, A. (2015) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0129906 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Colbert, N. K. W., Pelletier, N. C., Cote, J. M., Concannon, J. B., Jurdak, N. A., Minott, S. B., & Markowski, V. P. (2005) · Environmental Health Perspectives · doi:10.1289/ehp.7509 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
“These results are interesting in light of recent findings in humans that higher prenatal levels of PCBs have been associated with less masculinized play behavior in Dutch schoolboys and more masculinized play in schoolgirls (Vreugdenhil et al. 2002).”
BackgroundResultBlake, B. E., & McCoy, K. A. (2015) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.04.021 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
- Authors
- Vreugdenhil, H. J. I., Slijper, F. M. E., Mulder, P. G. H., & Weisglas-Kuperus, N.
- Affiliations
- Erasmus MC - Sophia Children’s Hospital (NL)
- Department of Paediatrics, Division of Neonatology, Erasmus University Rotterdam and University Hospital/Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
- ORCID
- Mulder, Paul G H
- Venue
- Environmental Health Perspectives
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2002-10-01
- Volume
- 110
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- A593-A598
- ISSN
- 0091-6765 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-9924
- PMC
- PMC1241045
- OpenAlex
- W2125839719
- Cited by
- 188
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 11.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- public-domain
- creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (vor, 5568 d)
- Locations
- Environmental Health Perspectives (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Pure Amsterdam UMC (publishedVersion)
- Amsterdam UMC (VU Amsterdam) - Institutional Repository (publishedVersion)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RePub (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- European Commission
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Toxic Organic Pollutants Impact
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Effects and risks of endocrine disrupting chemicals
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Sexual Differentiation and Disorders
- Keywords
- polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, perinatal exposure, sex differences, neurotoxicity, breast milk, cord plasma, maternal plasma, organochlorine compounds
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aggression, Child, Child Development, Dioxins, Environmental Pollutants, Female, Gender Identity, Humans, Male, Netherlands, Play and Playthings, Polychlorinated Biphenyls, Pregnancy, Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects, Sex Factors, Gonadal Steroid Hormones, Cohort Studies
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