Summary
Prospective cohort study within the PROGRESS cohort, Mexico City. Whole blood metals measured at age 4 in 422 children (2007-2011 enrollment); metabolic outcomes (fasting plasma glucose, serum insulin, HOMA-IR, HOMA-B) assessed at ages 4, 6, 8, and 10 years. Antimony was the third most abundant metal in blood (median 4.9 microg/L) and was detected in 100% of samples. In single-metal models, Sb did not independently predict any metabolic outcome. In mixture (quantile g-computation) analyses, Sb contributed a small positive weight to fasting glucose and insulin, and a notable negative weight to HOMA-B (beta-cell function), where it was the second-largest negative contributor after zinc.
Key numbers
Whole blood Sb (microg/L), N = 422 children at age 4, Mexico City:
- Median: 4.9 microg/L
- IQR: 4.3-5.7 microg/L
- Range: 3-26 microg/L
- Detection frequency: 100% (LOD range 0.024-0.27 microg/L)
Mixture contributions (quantile g-computation, positive-direction index weights):
- FPG: Sb weight = 0.074 (4th largest positive contributor among 11 metals)
- Serum insulin: Sb weight = 0.021 (small positive)
- HOMA-IR: Sb weight = 0.005 (minimal)
- HOMA-B: Sb weight = -0.29 (second largest negative contributor; Zn = -0.54)
Single-metal models: Sb 95% CIs all crossed null for all metabolic outcomes; no statistically significant independent association.
Evidence Fitness
Reconstructable dataset for childhood blood Sb in Mexico City. The mixture finding for HOMA-B is hypothesis-generating; it does not constitute independent evidence of a Sb effect on beta-cell function.
Methods (brief)
PROGRESS cohort, Mexico City. Whole blood metals by ICP-MS at age 4. Metabolic outcomes by fasting blood draw at ages 4, 6, 8, 10. Single-metal linear mixed effects models. Metal mixture analysis by quantile g-computation. 11 metals in the mixture.
Implications
- Certification: children in Mexico City carry a median blood Sb of 4.9 microg/L at age 4, nearly double the median in Spanish working adults (2.36 microg/L), consistent with higher environmental Sb burden.
- Courses: illustrates how mixture analysis can reveal metal contributions not apparent in single-metal models.
- App: not applicable to food contamination profiles.
- Microbiome: not addressed.
Provenance notes
Open access, CC BY. File from PMC OA S3 (PMC13713064). PROGRESS cohort, Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Mexico.
Update history
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