Association between arsenic exposure and plasma cholinesterase activity: a population based study in Bangladesh

Environmental Health

Research

Md Rezaul Karim¹  Nurshad Ali²  Md Ashraful Hoque²  Kazi Abdus Salam²  Khairul Islam²  Md Rezaul Karim²  Khaled Hossain²  Abedul Haque²  Aminur Rahman²  Zahangir Alam Saud²  Anwarul Azim Akhand³  Mostaque Hossain⁴  Md Abdul Khalek⁵  Hideki Miyataka⁶  Seiichiro Himeno⁶  Abul Mandal⁷ 

[1] Department of Applied Nutrition and Food Technology, Islamic University, 7003, Kushtia, Bangladesh;Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Rajshahi University, 6205, Rajshahi, Bangladesh;Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Dhaka University, 1000, Dhaka, Bangladesh;Department of Medicine, Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, 6000, Rajshahi, Bangladesh;Department of Statistics, Rajshahi University, 6205, Rajshahi, Bangladesh;Laboratory of Molecular Nutrition and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima Bunri University, 770-8514, Tokushima, Japan;School of Life Sciences, University of Skövde, PO Box 408, SE-541 28, kövde, Sweden;

关键词: Arsenic;    Cholinesterase;    Arsenic Concentration;    Hair Sample;    Arsenic Exposure;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1476-069X-9-36

 received in 2010-02-13, accepted in 2010-07-10,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundArsenic is a potent pollutant that has caused an environmental catastrophe in certain parts of the world including Bangladesh where millions of people are presently at risk due to drinking water contaminated by arsenic. Chronic arsenic exposure has been scientifically shown as a cause for liver damage, cancers, neurological disorders and several other ailments. The relationship between plasma cholinesterase (PChE) activity and arsenic exposure has not yet been clearly documented. However, decreased PChE activity has been found in patients suffering liver dysfunction, heart attack, cancer metastasis and neurotoxicity. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the PChE activity in individuals exposed to arsenic via drinking water in Bangladesh.MethodsA total of 141 Bangladeshi residents living in arsenic endemic areas with the mean arsenic exposure of 14.10 ± 3.27 years were selected as study subjects and split into tertile groups based on three water arsenic concentrations: low (< 129 μg/L), medium (130-264 μg/L) and high (> 265 μg/L). Study subjects were further sub-divided into two groups (≤50 μg/L and > 50 μg/L) based on the recommended upper limit of water arsenic concentration (50 μg/L) in Bangladesh. Blood samples were collected from the study subjects by venipuncture and arsenic concentrations in drinking water, hair and nail samples were measured by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS). PChE activity was assayed by spectrophotometer.ResultsArsenic concentrations in hair and nails were positively correlated with the arsenic levels in drinking water. Significant decreases in PChE activity were observed with increasing concentrations of arsenic in water, hair and nails. The average levels of PChE activity in low, medium and high arsenic exposure groups were also significantly different between each group. Lower levels of PChE activity were also observed in the > 50 μg/L group compared to the ≤50 μg/L group. Moreover, PChE activity was significantly decreased in the skin (+) symptoms group compared to those without (-).ConclusionsWe found a significant inverse relationship between arsenic exposure and PChE activity in a human population in Bangladesh. This research demonstrates a novel exposure-response relationship between arsenic and PChE activity which may explain one of the biological mechanisms through which arsenic exerts its neuro-and hepatotoxicity in humans.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Ali et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. 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.