NEW ENDOCRINE DISRUPTOR STUDY COMPLETED: THANKS TO 171 PARTICIPANTS!

During these last months, we have been contacting you with the aim to propose you a new optional follow-up visit of the project, the objective of which is to assess the impact of endocrine disruptors on the health of your children. We are pleased to announce that this follow-up has been completed thanks to your cooperation.

Endocrine disruptors are chemical substances that can mimic the action of our natural hormones and cause alterations in the endocrine system, leading to adverse effects on development during childhood and on respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolic, cognitive and reproductive health. We can find ourselves exposed to these disruptors in our everyday life through food, cleaning products, pesticides, cosmetics, etc. Given their involvement in health, more and more research groups are focusing on better understanding these substances.

We want to evaluate the direct impact of endocrine disruptors on the immune system and the microbiota in one of the critical stages of life, such as childhood. Therefore, we took blood and hair samples from your infants to assess the relationship between prenatal exposure to endocrine disruptors and immune biomarkers or cortisol levels. During pregnancy, the substances to which the mother is exposed can cross the placental barrier and affect the fetus.

Despite being a test that can be invasive and complicated, 171 of you participated, having availability to do this follow-up. We were not able to collect the blood sample from all the brave children who came to have the extraction, but we did from most of them. Thank you very much for your involvement! We know we have a great, highly motivated cohort!

During this time, two nurses have joined the team, Maria and Olga, who have helped us perform the extractions on your children. We would like to thank you for your valuable participation!

Once the samples have been analyzed, we will be able to send you the final reports to each of the families that participated. We will also publish the general results so you can all see the progress of the study.

Many thanks again for your cooperation and support in this very important project!

 

This news was written by Paula Llabrés, BiSC Project technician.