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. 2021 Nov:156:106720.
doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106720. Epub 2021 Jun 21.

Variability in urinary biomarkers of human exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and its association with oxidative stress

Affiliations

Variability in urinary biomarkers of human exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and its association with oxidative stress

Hongkai Zhu et al. Environ Int. 2021 Nov.

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous environmental pollutants. Urinary concentrations of mono-hydroxylated metabolites of PAHs (OH-PAHs) have been used as biomarkers of these chemicals' exposure in humans. Little is known, however, with regard to intra- and inter-individual variability in OH-PAH concentrations and their association with oxidative stress. We conducted a longitudinal study of measurement of urinary concentrations of 15 OH-PAHs and 7 oxidative stress biomarkers (OSBs) of DNA damage [8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG)], lipid [malondialdehyde (MDA) and F2-isoprostanes (PGF)] and protein [o,o'-dityrosine (diY)] peroxidation in 19 individuals for 44 consecutive days. Metabolites of naphthalene (OHNap), fluorene (OHFlu), phenanthrene (OHPhe), and pyrene (OHPyr) were found in >70% of 515 urine samples analyzed, at sum concentrations (∑OH-PAH) measured in the range of 0.46-60 ng/mL. After adjusting for creatinine, OHNap and ∑OH-PAH concentrations exhibited moderate predictability, with intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) ranging from 0.359 to 0.760. However, ICC values were low (0.001-0.494) for OHFlu, OHPhe, and OHPyr, which suggested poor predictability for these PAH metabolites. Linear mixed-effects analysis revealed that an unit increase in ∑OH-PAH concentration corresponded to 4.5%, 5.3%, 20%, and 21% increase in respective urinary 8-OHdG, MDA, PGF, and diY concentrations, suggesting an association with oxidative damage to DNA, lipids, and proteins. The daily intakes of PAHs, calculated from urinary concentrations of OH-PAHs, were 10- to 100-fold below the current reference doses. This study provides valuable information to design sampling strategies in biomonitoring studies and in assigning exposure classifications of PAHs in epidemiologic studies.

Keywords: Biomonitoring; Hydroxy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; Intra-class correlation coefficients; Oxidative stress biomarkers; Variability.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.. Urinary OH-PAH concentrations in relation to change (%) in urinary OSB levels (error bar: 95% confidence intervals).
Linear mixed-effects model was obtained after adjustment for demographic [e.g., gender, age, body mass index (BMI), and ethnicity] and lifestyle variables (e.g., alcohol use, smoking status, exercise frequency, and dietary supplement use). *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level; **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Daily variation of creatinine-adjusted concentrations of ∑OH-PAH (mean ± standard error) in urine samples collected from 19 study participants (P) for a week. Only those participants who provided at least triplicate samples for each day in a week are displayed here.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.. Daily intakes of Nap, Phe, Flu, Pyr, and ∑PAH, estimated from urinary metabolite concentrations in 19 study participants, during a 44-day study period.
The red lines represent the Reference Doses (RfDs) set by the U.S. EPA for Nap, Flu and Pyr, which were 20, 40 and 30 μg/kg bw/day, respectively. The upper and lower limits of the box represent the 75th and 25th percentiles, the mean values are presented as “□”, whereas the median values are presented as a line in the box. The top and bottom horizontal lines outside the box represent the maximum and minimum values. The top “×” and bottom “×” represent the 99th and 1st percentiles, respectively.

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