1H NMR-based Metabolomics to Study Effects of Solvent Exposure on Workers from Synthetic Leather Factories
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Chang, Chun-Fu
Abstract
In the manufactoring processes of synthetic leather, the workers might expose to variety of solvents, such as N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), toluene (TOL), methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) which were all confirmed to have adverse health effects toward human by previous studies. This reasearch is to study metabolic effects of numerous co-exposure solvents on the workers of synthetic leather factories by using 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomic approach. Biological samples, urine, were collected from workers (n=39) of a synthetic leather factory in one day at 2 time points, pre-shift and post-shift. Metabolic profile of each sample was analyzed by 500 MHz NMR. Air samples were also collected using personal air-sampling to evaluate ambient concentration of DMF, TOL, MEK, and other solvents. Principal components analysis (PCA), partial least‐squares discriminant analysis (PLS‐DA), and logistic regression analysis were used to assess the association between metabolites and solvents. The results indicated that decreased level of 2-oxoisovalerate and elevated level of creatinine in pre-shift urine were associated with long-term exposure of higher level of DMF or higher level of TOL. Also, exposure to high level of TOL caused elevated level of hippurate and exposure to high level of MEK down regulated urinary histidine level. In addition, exposure to DMF and TOL simultaneously could enhance the effect on metabolic profiles that induced increased level of urinary 2-oxisovalerate, hippurate, 3-hydroxybutyrate and 3-aminoisobutyrate; depletion of guanidoacetate and phenylalanine. Overall, we discovered interference of the energy metabolism and amino acids metabolism when workers experienced multiple solvents exposure in the synthetic leather factory. Moreover, exposure to DMF and TOL simultaneously should be avoided by the workers and appropriate personal protective equipment is necessary to diminish worker’s exposure level. With the knowledge of this research, we can discover new biomarkers to identify adverse health effects induced by the solvents and conduct a better exposure assessment in order to give workers a better and safer occupational environment.
Subjects
N,N-dimethylformamide
toluene
methyl ethyl ketone
co-exposure
metabolomics
1H nuclear magnetic resonance
NMR
synthetic leather factory
SDGs
Type
thesis
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