🧬 What If Our Immune System Carried Chemical Pollution Traces From Birth?

A recent study published in Environmental Health Perspectives suggests this unsettling possibility. Researchers followed 200 infants in New York State, led by Kristin Scheible (University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry), focusing on prenatal exposure 🤰 to PFAS — fluorinated compounds known as “forever pollutants” because of their persistence in the environment and the human body.

🧪 The Core of the Study

• Tracking key immune cells (CD4+ T lymphocytes) in infants from birth to 12 months.
• Measuring PFAS levels in maternal blood during the second trimester — a crucial phase for fetal immune system development.

📉 The Findings

Higher PFAS levels in mothers were linked, one year later, to specific immune system changes in infants:

• 📌 Decrease in Tfh cells (follicular helper T cells), essential for antibody production after vaccination
• 📌 Increase in Th2 cells, associated with allergic responses, and Treg cells, which can suppress immune activity
• 📌 Alterations in Th1 cells, implicated in autoimmune diseases

While the percentage changes (0.2–0.3%) may seem small, prior studies show that even slight shifts can impair immune memory or promote early-life allergies.

Importantly, the PFAS levels observed were not extreme — similar or even lower than those commonly found in Western populations today. In other words, this is not a distant or rare scenario.

📚 Full study: Darline Castro-Meléndez, PhD et al., In utero PFAS exposure and changes in infant T helper cell development, Environmental Health Perspectives, 2025. 👉 Read here

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📌 To protect future generations, understanding exposure is essential.
🔬 Measuring is the first step toward prevention.
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