The association between prenatal PM_2.5 constituent exposure and gestational diabetes mellitus: Exploratory analysis of the potential modifying role of thyroid hormones.

Authors

Qingyun Huo, Huajie Yang, Xueyao Jia, Wei Li, Huiling Meng, Yuzhen Wang, Zhuoyu Sun, Liwen Zhang, Xueli Yang, Naijun Tang, Ming Zhao, Qiang Zhang

Published in

Ecotoxicology and environmental safety. Volume 323. Pages 120748. Sep 01, 2026. Epub Sep 01, 2026.

Abstract

The associations of PM_2.5 constituents with blood glucose and GDM remain unclear, and the interplay between PM_2.5 exposure and thyroid hormone levels in relation to GDM has not been well characterized. This retrospective cohort study included 1314 pregnant women with data collected through multiple methods. A generalized linear model analyzed PM_2.5-glucose links, logistic regression assessed pollutant-GDM associations, and stratified analyses explored these relationships at different thyroid hormone levels. In the study population, first-trimester exposure to SO₄^2- and BC correlated positively with FBG, as did PM_2.5 and its components in the second trimester. First-trimester SO₄²⁻ exposure (OR=1.26, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.51) and second-trimester exposures to PM_2.5 (OR=1.67, 95% CI: 1.19, 2.35), NO₃⁻ (OR=1.34, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.68), and NH₄⁺ (OR=1.33, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.65) were associated with increased GDM risk. Stratified analyses showed that second-trimester BC and OM were positively correlated with FBG in the high-TSH and low-FT4 strata, respectively. In addition, first-trimester exposure to SO₄^2- (high TSH: OR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.84; low FT4: OR = 1.35, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.74) and to PM_2.5 (high TSH: OR = 1.93, 95% CI: 1.14, 3.27; low FT4: OR = 1.82, 95% CI: 1.46, 2.25) in the second trimester were associated with higher odds of GDM. These findings show that PM_2.5 exposure was associated with glucose dysregulation and GDM in pregnant women differently by trimester and component. Across the separate TSH- and FT4-stratified analyses, women in the high-TSH and low-FT4 strata, respectively, appeared to show greater susceptibility to air pollution-related GDM. These subgroup findings should therefore be interpreted as exploratory and require validation in future studies.

PMID:
42679416
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 02 Sep 2026.

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