The organochlorine insecticide DDT, widely used in agriculture in the 1950's and 1960's, resulted in persistent environmental contamination of its degradate DDE. One agricultural region with heavy DDT usage was the Mississippi Delta, a region of 18 counties of intense agriculture, both historically and at present. The residents of this region display a large number of health disparities, one of the more prominent of which is type 2 diabetes. Because of associations reported from other human populations of organochlorine levels and type 2 diabetes, this project investigated the serum levels of DDE from Caucasian (C) or African American (AA) men from Delta and non-Delta regions of Mississippi. Subjects were patients at the Veterans' Administration Hospital in Jackson, MS, and provided IRB-approved informed consent prior to participation. Subjects were at least 45 years old and provided de-identified clinical and demographic information and serum samples, with a target of 150 subjects from each region. In addition DDE concentrations in 60 soil samples from each of the two regions were quantified. Analysis was by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. About 80% of the Delta soil samples had quantifiable levels of DDE compared to 23% of the non-Delta soil samples and were 10-fold higher in Delta samples. Delta subjects had about 1.5-fold higher DDE levels, adjusted for serum lipid levels, than non-Delta subjects, 1560 and 1010 ng/g lipid, respectively. DDE levels in non-Deltans were higher in diabetics than non-diabetics, but were similar among diabetic and non-diabetic Deltans. AA subjects had 2.6-fold higher DDE levels than C subjects, 1990 and 760 ng/g lipid, respectively. These results suggest that higher environmental residue levels of OC compounds, such as DDE, may still result in higher serum levels and may be useful for developing a biomarker of T2D. (Supported by USEPA STAR RD-83479501-0).

DDE concentrations in serum of Mississippians and its association with type 2 diabetes

248th National Meeting (2014)

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