Department of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City University, 1-4-3 Asahimachi, Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan.
Environ Health Prev Med. 2012 May;17(3):235-45. doi: 10.1007/s12199-011-0247-5. Epub 2011 Nov 3.
Chronic inorganic arsenic (iAs) exposure currently affects tens of millions of people worldwide. To accurately determine the proportion of urinary arsenic metabolites in residents continuously exposed to iAs, we performed arsenic speciation analysis of the urine of these individuals and determined whether a correlation exists between the concentration of iAs in drinking water and the urinary arsenic species content.
The subjects were 165 married couples who had lived in the Pabna District in Bangladesh for more than 5 years. Arsenic species were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.
The median iAs concentration in drinking water was 55 μgAs/L (range <0.5-332 μgAs/L). Speciation analysis revealed the presence of arsenite, arsenate, monomethylarsonic acid (MMA), and dimethylarsinic acid in urine samples with medians (range) of 16.8 (7.7-32.3), 1.8 (<0.5-3.3), 13.7 (5.6-25.0), and 88.6 μgAs/L (47.9-153.4 μgAs/L), respectively. No arsenobetaine or arsenocholine was detected. The concentrations of the 4 urinary arsenic species were significantly and linearly related to each other. The urinary concentrations of total arsenic and each species were significantly correlated with the iAs concentration of drinking water.
All urinary arsenic species are well correlated with each other and with iAs in drinking water. The most significant linear relationship existed between the iAs concentration in drinking water and urinary iAs + MMA concentration. From these results, combined with the effects of seafood ingestion, the best biomarker of iAs exposure is urinary iAs + MMA concentration.
慢性无机砷（iAs）暴露目前影响着全球数千万人。为了准确确定持续暴露于 iAs 的居民尿液中砷代谢物的比例，我们对这些个体的尿液进行了砷形态分析，并确定饮用水中 iAs 浓度与尿液中砷形态含量之间是否存在相关性。
研究对象为 165 对在孟加拉国巴纳地区居住超过 5 年的已婚夫妇。使用高效液相色谱法和电感耦合等离子体质谱法测量砷形态。
饮用水中 iAs 浓度的中位数为 55μgAs/L（范围<0.5-332μgAs/L）。形态分析显示尿液中存在亚砷酸盐、砷酸盐、一甲基砷酸（MMA）和二甲基砷酸，中位数（范围）分别为 16.8（7.7-32.3）、1.8（<0.5-3.3）、13.7（5.6-25.0）和 88.6μgAs/L（47.9-153.4μgAs/L）。未检测到砷甜菜碱或砷胆碱。4 种尿砷形态的浓度彼此之间呈显著线性相关。总砷和各物种的尿浓度与饮用水中 iAs 浓度显著相关。
所有尿砷形态均与彼此以及饮用水中的 iAs 呈显著线性相关。饮用水中 iAs 浓度与尿 iAs+MMA 浓度之间存在最显著的线性关系。根据这些结果，并结合海鲜摄入的影响，iAs 暴露的最佳生物标志物是尿 iAs+MMA 浓度。
