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Ambient black carbon particles reach the fetal side of human placenta

Journal Contribution - Journal Article

Particle transfer across the placenta has been suggested but to date, no direct evidence in real-life, human context exists. Here we report the presence of black carbon (BC) particles as part of combustion-derived particulate matter in human placentae using white-light generation under femtosecond pulsed illumination. BC is identified in all screened placentae, with an average (SD) particle count of 0.95 × 104 (0.66 × 104) and 2.09 × 104 (0.9 × 104) particles per mm3 for low and high exposed mothers, respectively. Furthermore, the placental BC load is positively associated with mothers' residential BC exposure during pregnancy (0.63-2.42 µg per m3). Our finding that BC particles accumulate on the fetal side of the placenta suggests that ambient particulates could be transported towards the fetus and represents a potential mechanism explaining the detrimental health effects of pollution from early life onwards.
Journal: Nature Communications
ISSN: 2041-1723
Issue: 1
Volume: 10
Publication year:2019
BOF-keylabel:yes
IOF-keylabel:yes
BOF-publication weight:6
CSS-citation score:4
Authors from:Hospital, Higher Education
Accessibility:Open