Liu Heming, Wang Jianzhong, Yang Zenghua, Wang Kunzheng
Orthopedic Surgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Medical institute of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shannxi Province, China.
Biol Trace Elem Res. 2015 Oct;167(2):200-8. doi: 10.1007/s12011-015-0312-9. Epub 2015 Mar 25.
To explore the toxic effects of rare earth elements (REEs) accumulated in human body, adopting the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method, the present study measured REEs and the contents of eight other elements (Ca, Fe, Cu, Na, K, Zn, Mg, and P) in the hair of eight persons exposed to soil containing REEs for a long time as well as in the control group. In addition, proteomic analysis of serum of the two groups was conducted by isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) technique. Experimental results show that in the hair of the two groups, 15 REEs and eight other elements were detected, in which the content of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Tb, Ho, Tm, Yb, and Fe in the exposure group is significantly higher than that of the control group, but the content of Ca in the exposure group is significantly lower than that of the control group; analysis yields out 29 differentially expressed proteins, in which 16 proteins are upregulated and 13 proteins are downregulated. Bioinformatics analysis of differentially expressed proteins demonstrates that they participate in various biological processes and five Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways, forming an interaction network. Besides, some differentially expressed proteins may be related to neurovirulence, hepatotoxicity, pathological fibrosis, osteoporosis, and anticoagulation caused by REEs. The present experiment investigated the toxic effects of REEs accumulated in human body at the molecular level, which may lay a foundation for the future research of biological effect, threshold limit values, protection from exposure, and reasonable application of REEs.
为探究人体中蓄积的稀土元素（REEs）的毒性效应，本研究采用电感耦合等离子体质谱（ICP-MS）法，测定了8名长期接触含稀土元素土壤人员头发中稀土元素及其他8种元素（钙、铁、铜、钠、钾、锌、镁和磷）的含量，并与对照组进行了比较。此外，采用相对和绝对定量同位素标记（iTRAQ）技术对两组人员的血清进行了蛋白质组学分析。实验结果表明，两组人员头发中均检测到15种稀土元素和8种其他元素，其中暴露组中镧、铈、镨、钕、铽、钬、铥、镱和铁的含量显著高于对照组，但暴露组中钙的含量显著低于对照组；分析得出29种差异表达蛋白，其中16种蛋白上调，13种蛋白下调。对差异表达蛋白的生物信息学分析表明，它们参与了各种生物学过程和5条京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）通路，形成了一个相互作用网络。此外，一些差异表达蛋白可能与稀土元素引起的神经毒性、肝毒性、病理纤维化、骨质疏松和抗凝作用有关。本实验从分子水平上研究了人体中蓄积的稀土元素的毒性效应，可能为今后稀土元素的生物学效应、阈限值、暴露防护及合理应用研究奠定基础。
