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Reduction of Finger-Prick Blood Haemoglobin is Related to Metal Mixtures Exposure in Chinese Pre-Schoolers: Joint Effect Models
Posted: 6 Sep 2022
More...Abstract
In biological systems, toxic metals, such as cadmium, chromium, copper and lead, have been reported to influence cellular organelles and cause oxidative damage, that may lead to abnormal blood system function and decreased haemoglobin (Hb). Environmental metals exposures do not occur in isolation, so we used three reasonable statistical methods to assess the co-exposure effect of metal mixtures on finger-prick blood Hb among Chinese pre-schoolers. Weighted Quantile Sum (WQS) regression and Quantile g-computation were performed using a panel of twenty-three urinary metals measured by high-resolution inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry collected from Chinese pre-schoolers (n = 1460), and verification of the derived Hb-related multi-metal effect was executed using Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR). From the multivariable generalized linear regression, WQS regression and Quantile g-computation, urinary uranium, thallium, aluminium, iron and tungsten were correlated negatively with finger-prick blood Hb among Chinese pre-schoolers, while urinary barium were correlated positively (Ps < 0.05). And a significant negative association between metal mixtures exposure with finger-prick blood Hb was indicated in WQS regression, Quantile g-computation and BKMR with aluminium as the greatest contribution to the joint effect. These findings provide possible interpretations of environmental exposure and Hb-related disease in pre-schoolers.
Funding Information: The project was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China [No. 81872698 and 71774049], Foundation for Innovative Research Team of Hubei Provincial Department of Education [T2021014], and Foundation for Talent start-up of Hubei University of Medicine [2021QDJZR027].
Declaration of Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Ethics Approval Statement: Our research was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Hubei University of Medicine [No. 2019-TH-80].
Keywords: Metals, Single exposure, co-exposure, haemoglobin, Chinese pre-schoolers
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
