Environmental Research · Nov 11, 2026

Internal exposure to persistent organic pollutants mixtures and long-term changes in adiposity in women

By Ren X, Frénoy P, Artaud F et al.

Introduction Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are lipophilic endocrine-disrupting chemicals that accumulate in adipose tissue and may disrupt metabolic regulation and fat storage. Conversely, higher adiposity may enhance POPs accumulation. Direct assessment of adiposity is challenging, therefore, anthropometric indicators like body weight (BW), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) are used to characterize overall and central adiposity. Objective To assess the associations between blood levels of POPs mixtures and both baseline adiposity and longitudinal changes in adiposity indicators among women. Methods 923 women followed for a median of 11.2 years were included. Associations between blood levels of POPs mixtures and baseline and longitudinal changes in adiposity indicators were examined using principal component analysis (PCA) to characterize exposure profiles and linear mixed-effects models to assess cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships. Results Individual POPs showed heterogeneous associations with adiposity indicators. PCA identified five POP profiles explaining 59% of exposure variability. At baseline, high scores for PC4 (PCBs and cis-heptachlor-epoxide profile) and PC5 (non-dixion-like-PCBs (NDL-PCBs) and Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) profile) were positively associated with the three adiposity indicators, whereas PC3 (Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) profile) was inversely associated with BW. Longitudinally, higher PC1 scores were associated with lower BW change but greater WHR increase, while PC3 was associated with greater BW gain but smaller WC increase. However, longitudinal associations showed no consistent dose–response patterns. Conclusion Distinct POPs mixture profiles were associated with overall and central adiposity among women, particularly at baseline. The heterogeneous patterns observed across POPs classes and adiposity measures underscore the importance of considering chemical mixtures when evaluating environmental determinants of adiposity. However, longitudinal analyses provided limited evidence of consistent dose–response associations.

doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2026.126143PubMed 43014647Populations