不同国家/地区的三氯乙烯(TCE)职业接触限值为8小时时间加权平均值(TWA),为1至100ppm。许多国家目前使用10ppm作为职业暴露的监管标准,但是在这种暴露水平下对人类的生物学影响尚不清楚。我们研究的目的是评估职业暴露于低于当前监管标准的低水平TCE的工人中免疫和肾脏生物标志物的变化。
我们对80名接触广泛TCE的健康工人进行了横断面分子流行病学研究(即,0.4-229ppm)和中国96个可比的未暴露对照,先前报道TCE暴露与免疫功能和肾毒性相关的多种候选生物学标志物相关。这里,我们对我们测量的所有31种生物标志物进行了进一步分析,以确定暴露于<10ppmTCE的工人亚组(n=35)与对照组相比变化的幅度和统计学意义.
六种免疫生物标志物(即,CD4+效应记忆T细胞,sCD27,sCD30,白介素10,IgG和IgM)显着降低(%差异在-16.0%至-72.1%之间),并且一种肾毒性标志物(肾损伤分子-1,KIM-1)显着增加(%差异:52.5%)与对照组相比,暴露于<10ppm的工人。在考虑了使用错误发现率的多重比较后,这些关联仍然值得注意(即,<0.20)。
我们的结果表明,作为8小时TWA,职业暴露于低于10ppm的TCE可能会改变免疫功能和肾脏毒性的关键标志物水平。
The occupational exposure limit for trichloroethylene (TCE) in different countries varies from 1 to 100 ppm as an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA). Many countries currently use 10 ppm as the regulatory standard for occupational exposures, but the biological effects in humans at this level of exposure remain unclear. The objective of our study was to evaluate alterations in immune and renal biomarkers among workers occupationally exposed to low levels of TCE below current regulatory standards.
We conducted a cross-sectional molecular epidemiology study of 80 healthy workers exposed to a wide range of TCE (ie, 0.4-229 ppm) and 96 comparable unexposed controls in
China, and previously reported that TCE exposure was associated with multiple candidate biological markers related to immune function and kidney toxicity. Here, we conducted further analyses of all of the 31 biomarkers that we have measured to determine the magnitude and statistical significance of changes in the subgroup of workers (n=35) exposed to <10 ppm TCE compared with controls.
Six immune biomarkers (ie, CD4+ effector memory T cells, sCD27, sCD30, interleukin-10, IgG and IgM) were significantly decreased (% difference ranged from -16.0% to -72.1%) and one kidney toxicity marker (kidney injury molecule-1, KIM-1) was significantly increased (% difference: +52.5%) among workers exposed to <10 ppm compared with the control group. These associations remained noteworthy after taking into account multiple comparisons using the false discovery rate (ie, <0.20).
Our results suggest that occupational exposure to TCE below 10 ppm as an 8-hour TWA may alter levels of key markers of immune function and kidney toxicity.