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Hirokazu Uemura,¹ Kokichi Arisawa,^1,2 Mineyoshi Hiyoshi,¹ Atsushi Kitayama,¹ Hidenobu Takami,¹ Fusakazu Sawachika,¹ Satoru Dakeshita,¹ Kentaro Nii,¹ Hiroshi Satoh,² Yoshio Sumiyoshi,² Kenji Morinaga,² Kazunori Kodama,² Taka-ichiro Suzuki,² Masaki Nagai,² and Tsuguyoshi Suzuki²*

¹Department of Preventive Medicine, Institute of Health Biosciences, The University of Tokushima Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan; ²Study Group on the Accumulation of Dioxins in Humans, Tokyo, Japan

Abstract
Background: Environmental exposure to some persistent organic pollutants has been reported to be associated with metabolic syndrome in the U.S. population.

Objectives: We evaluated the associations of body burden levels of dioxins and related compounds with the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among the general population in Japan.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study with 1,374 participants not occupationally exposed to these pollutants, living throughout Japan during 2002–2006. In fasting blood samples, we measured biochemical factors and determined lipid-adjusted concentrations of 10 polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) , 7 polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) , and 12 dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (DL-PCBs) all of which have toxic equivalency factors. We also performed a questionnaire survey.

Results: The toxic equivalents (TEQs) of PCDDs, PCDFs, and DL-PCBs and total TEQs had significant adjusted associations with metabolic syndrome, whether or not we excluded diabetic subjects. By analyzing each component of metabolic syndrome separately, the DL-PCB TEQs and total TEQs were associated with all components, and the odds ratios (ORs) in the highest quartile of DL-PCB TEQs in four of the five components were higher than those for PCDDs or PCDFs. We also found congener-specific associations with metabolic syndrome ; in particular, the highest quartiles of PCB-126 and PCB-105 had adjusted ORs of 9.1 and 7.3, respectively.

Conclusions: These results suggest that body burden levels of dioxins and related compounds, particularly those of DL-PCBs, are associated with metabolic syndrome. Of the components, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, and glucose intolerance were most closely associated with these pollutants.

Key words: cross-sectional study, metabolic syndrome, dioxins, PCBs, PCDDs, PCDFs, polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, http://dx.doi.org/ [Online+10+October+2008]" rel="tag">polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins. Environ Health Perspect 117:568–573 (2009) . [Online 10 October 2008]

Address correspondence to H. Uemura, Department of Preventive Medicine, Institute of Health Biosciences, University of Tokushima Graduate School, 3-18-15, Kuramoto-cho, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan. Telephone: 81-88-633-7073. Fax: 81-88-633-7074. E-mail: uemura@basic.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp

*Deceased.

We performed this study under the supervision of the Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan. We thank T. Kitamado and M. Hasegawa (Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan) and M. Hijiya and Y. Chisaki (IDEA Consultants, Inc.) for their cooperation and encouragement during the study. We also thank members of the committee of the “Accumulation of Dioxins in Humans”: I. Uchiyam (Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University) , F. Kayama (Jichi Medical University) , H. Saito (Nagasaki University) , N. Suzuki (National Institute for Environment Studies) , T. Sobue (National Cancer Center Research Institute) , S. Tominaga (Aichi Health Promotion Foundation) , H. Miyata (Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Setsunan University) , M. Morita (National Institute for Environment Studies/Ehime University) , C. Tohyama (Center for Disease Biology and Integrative Medicine, University of Tokyo) , and S. Watanabe (National Institute of Health and Nutrition) .

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 18 July 2008 ; accepted 10 October 2008.