Evaluation of the Use of Arsenic Species and Heavy Metals in Saliva as Biological Marker of Inorganic Arsenic and Heavy Metals Exposure
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Yeh, Hui
Abstract
Biomonitoring is the measurement of chemicals or their metabolites in body fluids or tissues, such as blood, urine, hairs, nails, and saliva. Blood and urine samples are the most widely accepted matrices for the biomonitoring of trace metal exposure, and there is less research on trace elements in saliva. Collection of saliva is simple and non-invasive, and saliva is much more accessible as compared to other sample mediums. In addition, dietary arsenic from seafood intake would be significant interference for the assessment of exposure to inorganic arsenic using urine arsenic levels as biological marker. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the levels of trace elements in saliva and urine, including arsenic, barium, chromium, cobalt, cadmium, gallium, indium, lead, manganese, nickel, palladium, selenium, strontium, vanadium, and tungsten and arsenic species, i.e., arsenite (AsIII), arsenate (AsV), methylarsonic acid (MMA), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) and arsenobetaine (AsB), and to evaluate the usability of saliva as biomonitoring medium. Mean while, fluctuation of salivary arsenic species levels after seafood intake was also examined to evaluate the effect of dietary arsenic intake on the inorganic metabolites in saliva. There are two parts in this study. In the first part, the levels of arsenic species and trace elements were determined in 34 saliva and urine samples, respectively, from 17 healthy volunteers and 17 patients from the Division of Nephrology in National Taiwan University Hospital. The levels of trace elements were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and the arsenic species were determined by high performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS). There were positive correlations between salivary nickel level and urinary nickel level (rs = 0.503, p < 0.05), and between salivary tungsten level and urinary tungsten level (rs = 0.703, p < 0.05). There were significant differences in the saliva levels of arsenic, chromium, cobalt, lead, manganese, nickel, selenium, and vanadium among various age groups. The mean chromium level in saliva samples of volunteers with fixed orthodontic appliances or dentures was higher than that of volunteers without them. Higher salivary arsenate levels were observed in volunteers with kidney diseases. In the second part of this study, 16 volunteers were asked to eat about 100 g oyster or cuttlefish in one meal, and their saliva and urine samples were collected before and after the seafood intake for the determination of arsenic species levels. Results showed that the levels of arsenic in urine samples increased significantly after the intake of seafood, while there was no difference between arsenic levels in saliva before and after the seafood intake. In conclusion, tungsten in human saliva could be a useful biomarker to assess human exposure to tungsten. So were saliva arsenic species for the evaluation of inorganic arsenic exposure since they would not be affected by seafood arsenic intake.
Subjects
saliva
arsenic
arsenic speciation
heavy metals
biomonitoring
ICP-MS
HPLC-ICP-MS
SDGs
Type
thesis
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