Abstract：
Chromium (Cr) exposure is associated with various respiratory system diseases, but there are limited studies investigating its impact on lung function in young adults. The Cr exposure-related metabolomic changes are not well elucidated. This study recruited 608 students from a university in Shandong Province, China in 2019. We used cohort design fitted with linear mixed-effects models to assess the association between blood Cr concentration and lung function. In addition, we performed metabolomic and lipidomic analyses of baseline serum samples (N = 582) using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Two-step statistical analysis (analysis of variance and mixed-linear effect model) was used to evaluate the effect of blood Cr exposure on metabolites. We found that blood Cr was associated with decreased lung function in young adults. Each 2-fold increase in blood Cr concentrations was significantly associated with decreased FEV1 and FVC by 35.26 mL (95 % CI: -60.75, -9.78) and 38.56 mL (95 % CI: -66.60, -10.51), respectively. In the metabolomics analysis, blood Cr exposure was significantly associated with 14 key metabolites. The changed metabolites were mainly enriched in six pathways including lipid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and cofactor vitamin metabolism. Blood Cr may affect lung function through oxidative stress and inflammation related pathways.
摘要：
铬（Cr）暴露与各种呼吸系统疾病有关，但研究其对青壮年肺功能的影响的研究有限.Cr暴露相关的代谢组学变化尚未得到很好的阐明。这项研究从山东省一所大学招募了608名学生，2019年中国。我们使用符合线性混合效应模型的队列设计来评估血Cr浓度与肺功能之间的关联。此外,我们使用液相色谱-质谱法对基线血清样本(N=582)进行了代谢组学和脂质组学分析.使用两步统计分析（方差分析和混合线性效应模型）来评估血液Cr暴露对代谢物的影响。我们发现，血液Cr与年轻人的肺功能下降有关。血液Cr浓度每增加2倍，与FEV1和FVC降低35.26mL（95％CI：-60.75，-9.78）和38.56mL（95％CI：-66.60，-10.51）显着相关，分别。在代谢组学分析中，血Cr暴露与14种关键代谢产物显著相关.改变后的代谢产物主要富集在6个途径中,包括脂质代谢,氨基酸代谢，和辅因子维生素代谢。血Cr可能通过氧化应激和炎症相关通路影响肺功能。
