Date of Award

1-1-2023

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Anthropology

Content Description

1 online resource (vii, 134 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Lawrence Schell

Committee Members

Mia Gallo, David Lawrence, Julia Jennings

Keywords

Immune system, Polychlorinated biphenyls, DDT (Insecticide)

Subject Categories

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Exposure to environmental contaminants, including persistent organic pollutants (POPs) can disrupt normal immune function. As POPs, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (p,p’-DDE, a metabolite of p,p’-DDT), and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) are synthetic chemicals with long half-lives and can bioaccumulate and biomagnify within organisms throughout the food chain. This dissertation proposes that pollutant exposure can affect the immune system based on a sample of Native American women, thereby influencing human biological variation, and the development of an autoimmune phenotype. Data was collected from a sample of Native American women utilizing anthropometric measurements, medical diagnoses of autoimmune disease, autoimmune dysfunction symptoms, and serum samples. An experimental study was conducted to identify differences in cytokine levels between exposed and control mice groups based on information collected from Akwesasne Mohawk women. Statistical analyses were used to detect an association between pollutant exposure and markers of autoimmune dysfunction. p,p’-DDE, PCB congeners 32, 136, and 138 were found to be significantly associated with autoimmune dysfunction. Further, PCB 33 and HCB were associated with elevated levels of thyroid peroxidase antibodies, a marker of autoimmune thyroid disease. The experimental study illustrated that increased food and water consumption, sex, and strain were significantly associated with decreased TGF-β cytokine levels, which could promote autoimmune dysfunction. By employing an anthropological framework to analyze statistical associations between chemical exposure and health outcomes, this dissertation illustrated how exposure to pollutants affected immunological variation. Further, as a marker of a novel environment, the effect of pollutant exposure on the immune system described how modernization continues to affect contemporary human biological variation.

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