The relation between pesticides exposure and metabolic syndrome (MetS) has not been clearly identified. Performing a systematic review and meta-analysis, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, and ScienceDirect were searched for studies reporting the risk of MetS following pesticides exposure and their contaminants. We included 12 studies for a total of 6789 participants, in which 1981 (29.1%) had a MetS. Overall exposure to pesticides and their contaminants increased the risk of MetS by 30% (95CI 22%–37%). Overall organochlorine increased the risk of MetS by 23% (14–32%), as well as for most types of organochlorines: hexachlorocyclohexane increased the risk by 53% (28–78%), hexachlorobenzene by 40% (0.01–80%), dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene by 22% (9–34%), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane by 28% (5–50%), oxychlordane by 24% (1–47%), and transnonchlor by 35% (19–52%). Sensitivity analyses confirmed that overall exposure to pesticides and their contaminants increased the risk by 46% (35–56%) using crude data or by 19% (10–29%) using fully-adjusted model. The risk for overall pesticides and types of pesticides was also significant with crude data but only for hexachlorocyclohexane (36% risk increase, 17–55%) and transnonchlor (25% risk increase, 3–48%) with fully-adjusted models. Metaregressions demonstrated that hexachlorocyclohexane increased the risk of MetS in comparison to most other pesticides. The risk increased for more recent periods (Coefficient = 0.28, 95CI 0.20 to 0.37, by year). We demonstrated an inverse relationship with body mass index and male gender. In conclusion, pesticides exposure is a major risk factor for MetS. Besides organochlorine exposure, data are lacking for other types of pesticides. The risk increased with time, reflecting a probable increase of the use of pesticides worldwide. The inverse relationship with body mass index may signify a stockage of pesticides and contaminants in fat tissue.

Cadmium (Cd) in the food chain poses a serious hazard to human health. Therefore, a greenhouse hydroponic experiment was conducted to examine the potential of exogenously strigolactone GR24 in lessening Cd toxicity and to investigate its physiological mechanisms in the two barley genotypes, W6nk2 (Cd-sensitive) and Zhenong8 (Cd-tolerant). Exogenous application of 1 μM GR24 (strigol analogue) reduced the suppression of growth caused by 10 μM Cd, lowered plant Cd contents, increased the contents of other nutrient elements, protected chlorophyll, sustained photosynthesis, and markedly reduced Cd-induced H₂O₂ and malondialdehyde accumulation in barley. Furthermore, exogenous GR24 markedly increased NO contents and nitric oxide synthase activity in the Cd-sensitive genotype, W6nk2, effectively alleviating the Cd-induced repression of the activities of superoxide dismutase and peroxidase, increasing reduced glutathione (GSH) and ascorbic acid (AsA) pools and activities of AsA-GSH cycle including ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, dehydroascorbate reductase and monodehydroascorbate reductase. The findings of the present study indicate that GR24 could be a candidate for Cd detoxification by decreasing Cd contents, balancing nutrient elements, and protecting barley plants from toxic oxidation via indirectly eliminating reactive oxygen species (ROS), consequently contributing to reducing the potential risk of Cd pollution.

We conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the association between prenatal cadmium (Cd) exposure and birth weight. PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang databases were searched for studies published before March 2019. We used a model-based method, standardizing effect size from linear regression models to include a maximum number of studies during our quantitative evaluations. As a result, 11 articles from the general population, containing 10 birth cohorts and one cross-sectional study, were included. Our meta-analysis demonstrated that a 50% increase of maternal urine Cd (UCd) would be associated with a 6.15 g decrease in neonatal birth weight (β = −6.15 g, 95% CI: −10.81, −1.49) as well as a 50% increase of maternal blood Cd (BCd) would be associated with an 11.57 g decrease (β = −11.57 g; 95% CI: −18.85, −4.30). Stratified analysis of UCd data indicated that the results of female newborns were statistically significant (β = −8.92 g, 95% CI: −17.51, −0.34), as was the first trimester (β = −11.34 g, 95% CI: −19.54, −3.14). Furthermore, increased UCd levels were associated with a higher rate of low birth weight (LBW) risk (OR = 1.12, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.22). This meta-analysis demonstrated that elevated maternal Cd levels are associated with decreased birth weight and higher LBW risk.