Total arsenic and speciation analysis of saliva and urine samples from individuals living in a chronic arsenicosis area in China
Wang et al. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine
Total arsenic and speciation analysis of saliva and urine samples from individuals living in a chronic arsenicosis area in China
Dapeng Wang 0
Yasuyo Shimoda
Sanxiang Wang
Zhenghui Wang
Jian Liu 0
Xing Liu 0
Huanyu Jin 0
Fenfang Gao 0
Jian Tong 0
Kenzo Yamanaka
Jie Zhang 0
Yan An 0
0 Department of Toxicology, School of Public Health, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Preventive and Translational Medicine for Geriatric Diseases, Medical College of Soochow University , Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123 , People's Republic of China
Background: It is generally acknowledged that the determination of harmful chemical compounds excreted into saliva is useful for assessing their exposure levels. The aim of the present study was to compare the total arsenic and its species in saliva and urine samples collected from the people residing in an arsenic-contaminated area of China and to further verify the feasibility of using salivary arsenic as a new biomarker of arsenic exposure. Methods: Total arsenic and speciation analyses in urine and saliva samples among 70 residents exposed to arsenic from drinking water in Shanxi, China were carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP/MS). Results: The result showed that, total arsenic concentration in saliva was relatively lower than in urine samples, but it existed a strong positive correlation with total urinary arsenic, drinking water arsenic and different skin lesions. For arsenic metabolism analyses, AsIII, AsV, MMA, and DMA were detected in all of the urine samples with the dominating species of DMA (73.2%). Different with urinary arsenic species, most arsenic species in saliva were not methylated. The major species in saliva was iAs (AsIII + AsV, 76.18%), followed by DMA (13.08%) and MMA (9.13%). And the primary methylation index (PMI), second methylation index (SMI) and proportion of the four different species (AsIII, AsV, MMA, and DMA) in saliva showed no significant positive relationship with that of in urine. Conclusions: These findings indicated saliva may be used as a useful tool for biological monitoring of total arsenic exposure in the crowd rather than an efficient tool for assessing arsenic metabolism in human body after exposed to arsenic.
Arsenic speciation; Saliva; Urine; Drinking water; Biomarker
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Background
Arsenic is a ubiquitous element in the earth’s crust [1] and
is widely distributed in water, air, soil, and food in both
inorganic and organic forms [2]. Inorganic arsenic (arsenate
and/or arsenite) has long been recognized as human
carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on
Cancer (IARC) [3]. Long-term exposure to inorganic
arsenic can cause numerous human health effects, including
several types of cancers [3–5], cardiovascular disease, and
diabetes [6, 7]. In addition, arsenicosis is a serious and
widespread global public health problem [8] with more
than 200 million people at risk of toxic arsenic exposure
from ground water and food contamination [9].
Considerable progress has been made in recent years to address
arsenic toxicity, including both genetic and epigenetic
alteration [10, 11]. In spite of these efforts, the exact
molecular and cellular mechanism involved in arsenic toxicity
are rather unrevealed given that the complicated
metabolism of arsenic in the human body, and no effective
treatment for arsenicosis exists [3]. Hence, timely screening for
arsenic exposure and accessing arsenic metabolism is
particularly vital in preventing arsenic poisoning.
Traditionally, samples for screening arsenic exposure mainly
include blood, urine, hair, and nails [12, 13]. More
recently, salivary analyses has became a useful tool for
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disease diagnosis because of its non-invasive collection
method and easy storage [14]. Additionally, in the area of
biological monitoring, previous studies on the use of saliva
have focused on lead, cadmium, mercury, and herbicide
concentrations in humans or animals [15–19]. For arsenic
exposure, there have been limited and paradoxical studies
that have detected arsenic concentration in saliva. Yuan
et al., [20] first analyzed arsenic and its species in human
saliva from an arsenic-contaminated area and found that
salivary arsenic could be a potential biomarker of arsenic
exposure. Subsequently, other studies (...truncated)