School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore; Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute (NEWRI), Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, CleanTech One, 637141, Singapore.
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore.
J Hazard Mater. 2022 Jun 15;432:128710. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.128710. Epub 2022 Mar 16.
Printers are everyday devices in both our homes and workplaces. We have previously found high occupational exposure levels to toner-based printer emitted nanoparticles (PEPs) at printing centers. To elucidate the potential health effects from exposure to PEPs, a total of 124 human serum samples were collected from 32 workers in the printing centers during the repeated follow-up measurements, and global serum metabolomics were analyzed in three ways: correlation between metabolic response and personal exposure (dose response exposure); metabolite response changes between Monday and Friday of a work week (short-term exposure), and metabolite response in relation to length of service in a center (long-term exposure). A total of 52 key metabolites changed significantly in relation to nanoparticle exposure levels. The primary dysregulated pathways included inflammation and immunity related arginine and tryptophan metabolism. Besides, some distinct metabolite expression patterns were found to occur during the transition from short-term to long-term exposures, suggesting cumulative effect of PEPs exposure. These findings, for the first time, highlight the inhalation exposure responses to printer emitted nanoparticles at the metabolite level, potentially serving as pre-requisites for whole organism and population responses, and are inline with emerging findings on potential health effects.
打印机是我们家庭和工作场所的日常设备。我们之前在打印中心发现了高水平的职业性暴露于基于墨粉的打印机排放的纳米颗粒（PEPs）。为了阐明暴露于 PEPs 可能产生的健康影响，我们在重复的随访测量中从打印中心的 32 名工人中总共收集了 124 份人血清样本，并以三种方式分析了全球血清代谢组学：代谢反应与个人暴露（剂量反应暴露）之间的相关性；工作周周一至周五的短期暴露之间的代谢物反应变化；以及与中心服务年限的关系（长期暴露）。共有 52 种关键代谢物与纳米颗粒暴露水平显著相关。主要失调的途径包括与炎症和免疫有关的精氨酸和色氨酸代谢。此外，还发现一些不同的代谢物表达模式在从短期暴露到长期暴露的转变过程中发生，表明 PEP 暴露的累积效应。这些发现首次强调了在代谢物水平上对打印机排放的纳米颗粒的吸入暴露反应，这可能是作为整个生物体和人群反应的前提条件，与潜在健康影响的新兴发现一致。
