Dose-response relationship between arsenic exposure and the serum enzymes for liver function tests in the individuals exposed to arsenic: a cross sectional study in Bangladesh

Environmental Health

Research

Nurshad Ali¹  Abul Fajol¹  Matiar Rahman¹  Mashiur Rahman¹  Khairul Islam¹  Kazi Abdus Salam¹  Ekhtear Hossain¹  Khaled Hossain¹  Abedul Haque¹  Zahangir Alam Saud¹  Rezaul Karim²  Anwarul Azim Akhand³  Mostaque Hossain⁴  Papia Sultana⁵  Rezaul Karim⁶  Hideki Miyataka⁷  Seiichiro Himeno⁷  Abul Mandal⁸ 

[1] Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Rajshahi University, 6205, Rajshahi, Bangladesh;Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Rajshahi University, 6205, Rajshahi, Bangladesh;Department of Applied Nutrition and Food Technology, Islamic University, 7003, Kushtia, Bangladesh;Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Dhaka University, 1000, Dhaka, Bangladesh;Department of Medicine, Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation in Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders (BIRDEM), Dhaka, Bangladesh;Department of Statistics, Rajshahi University, 6205, Rajshahi, Bangladesh;FIST, UMP, Gambang, 26300, Pahang, Malaysia;Laboratory of Molecular Nutrition and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima Bunri University, 770-8514, Tokushima, Japan;System Biology Research Center, University of Skövde, P. O. Box 408, SE-541-28, Skövde, Sweden;

关键词: Arsenic;    Arsenic Concentration;    Arsenic Exposure;    Arsenic Level;    Inductively Couple Plasma Mass Spectroscopy Analysis;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1476-069X-10-64

 received in 2011-03-30, accepted in 2011-07-08,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundChronic arsenic exposure has been shown to cause liver damage. However, serum hepatic enzyme activity as recognized on liver function tests (LFTs) showing a dose-response relationship with arsenic exposure has not yet been clearly documented. The aim of our study was to investigate the dose-response relationship between arsenic exposure and major serum enzyme marker activity associated with LFTs in the population living in arsenic-endemic areas in Bangladesh.MethodsA total of 200 residents living in arsenic-endemic areas in Bangladesh were selected as study subjects. Arsenic concentrations in the drinking water, hair and nails were measured by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS). The study subjects were stratified into quartile groups as follows, based on concentrations of arsenic in the drinking water, as well as in subjects' hair and nails: lowest, low, medium and high. The serum hepatic enzyme activities of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT) were then assayed.ResultsArsenic concentrations in the subjects' hair and nails were positively correlated with arsenic levels in the drinking water. As regards the exposure-response relationship with arsenic in the drinking water, the respective activities of ALP, AST and ALT were found to be significantly increased in the high-exposure groups compared to the lowest-exposure groups before and after adjustments were made for different covariates. With internal exposure markers (arsenic in hair and nails), the ALP, AST and ALT activity profiles assumed a similar shape of dose-response relationship, with very few differences seen in the higher groups compared to the lowest group, most likely due to the temporalities of exposure metrics.ConclusionsThe present study demonstrated that arsenic concentrations in the drinking water were strongly correlated with arsenic concentrations in the subjects' hair and nails. Further, this study revealed a novel exposure- and dose- response relationship between arsenic exposure metrics and serum hepatic enzyme activity. Elevated serum hepatic enzyme activities in the higher exposure gradients provided new insights into arsenic-induced liver toxicity that might be helpful for the early prognosis of arsenic-induced liver diseases.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Islam et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.