Department of Laboratorial Science and Technology, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, 100191, PR China.
State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China.
Chemosphere. 2020 Aug;252:126488. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126488. Epub 2020 Mar 13.
Rare earth elements (REEs) are widely used in electronic products. But the contaminations of REEs in the e-waste sites and the related health effects were barely investigated. In the present study, we analyzed the concentrations of REEs and the hormones of the HPT axis in plasma of subjects recruited from an e-waste area and a reference area in Taizhou, China. The results showed that the concentrations of several REEs like La, Ce were much higher in the exposed group than in the control group (all p < 0.001). The thyroid hormones, FT3 and FT4, and TRH showed no significant difference between the two groups, while the concentration of TSH was significantly higher in the exposed group when compared to the control group (p = 0.002). Separate regression analysis indicated that elevated La and Ce levels were associated with higher TSH concentrations. MDA and 8-iso, the biomarkers of oxidative stress, were also significantly higher in the exposed group than that of the control group (p = 0.002 and p = 0.003, respectively). The increased oxidative stress might be the mechanism underlying the disruptive effects of REEs on TSH. Our results indicated that the quantities of internal exposure of REEs in the subjects in the e-waste area were considerable and the compositional profile of the REEs in the exposed group was different from the control group due to the e-waste dismantling. The expression of TSH were also affected by high La and Ce exposure which showed an endocrine disruption effects of REEs on HPT axis.
稀土元素（REEs）被广泛应用于电子产品。然而，电子废物场的 REE 污染及其相关的健康影响却很少被研究。在本研究中，我们分析了从中国台州电子废物区和参照区招募的受试者的血浆中 REE 浓度和 HPT 轴激素。结果表明，暴露组中多种 REE（如 La、Ce）的浓度明显高于对照组（均 p<0.001）。两组间甲状腺激素 FT3 和 FT4 以及 TRH 无显著差异，而暴露组的 TSH 浓度明显高于对照组（p=0.002）。单独的回归分析表明，La 和 Ce 水平升高与 TSH 浓度升高有关。暴露组的 MDA 和 8-iso，两种氧化应激生物标志物的水平也明显高于对照组（p=0.002 和 p=0.003）。氧化应激的增加可能是 REE 对 TSH 产生破坏作用的机制。我们的结果表明，电子废物区受试者的体内 REE 暴露量相当大，而且由于电子废物的拆解，暴露组的 REE 组成与对照组不同。TSH 的表达也受到高 La 和 Ce 暴露的影响，这表明 REE 对 HPT 轴具有内分泌干扰作用。
