Urinary metabolomics reveals associations between benzophenone exposure and thyroid function in children: A repeated-measures study

Abstract

Benzophenones (BPs) are potential thyroid hormone disruptors, but epidemiologic evidence in children and underlying biological mechanisms remain limited. In a panel study of 140 children (370 observations) aged 4-12 years with up to three visits, we measured five BPs in four-day pooled morning urine collected at each visit and assessed serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4), and free triiodothyronine (FT3). Untargeted urinary metabolomics was conducted in a subset of 48 children (144 observations) comparable to the overall children. A meet-in-the-middle (MITM) approach was applied to characterize underlying metabolic mechanisms. Mediation analysis was used to screen for potential mediating metabolites and to estimate the proportions mediated by individual and joint mediators. After false discovery rate correction, BP-1, BP-3, and BP-8 were significantly associated with elevated TSH and reduced FT3. Three multi-exposure models consistently indicated that the BP mixture was associated with increased TSH and decreased FT3, with BP-1, BP-3, and BP-8 identified as the primary contributors. The cysteine and methionine metabolism emerged as an overlapping pathway linking BP-3, BP-8, and the BP mixture to TSH. We identified 6, 9, and 8 significant mediating metabolites for the associations of BP-3, BP-8, and the BP mixture with TSH, respectively, accounting for mediated proportions of 11.5%-14.7%, 16.1%-25.3%, and 9.2%-15.1%. Among these mediators, dipeptides constituted the largest class, with five dipeptides identified. The combined mediation of multiple metabolites exceeded that of any single mediator, with total mediated proportions ranging from 20.2% to 42.1%. Integrated analyses revealed a cluster of children exhibiting elevated TSH, characterized by higher BP exposure and lower urinary levels of dipeptides, coenzymes, nucleotide metabolites, and others. Both individual and mixture exposures to BPs may alter thyroid function in children, with perturbations in cysteine and methionine metabolism and decreases in dipeptide-dominated urinary metabolites representing potential intermediate mechanisms.

Keywords: Benzophenones; Children; Metabolomics; Thyroid function.