Abstract
Metals play an important role in the development of diabetes mellitus (DM). The association of metals with diabetes among the Dong ethnicity in China remains poorly understood. The current study aimed to evaluate the association of single metal exposure and multi-metal co-exposure with DM risk. Urinary concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, strontium, vanadium, and zinc were measured using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) among 4479 Dong ethnic participants aged 30–79 years from the China Multi-Ethnic Cohort (CMEC) study. Based on tertiles, the metal exposure can be divided into three groups: low, middle, and high exposure. Multivariate logistic regression models and principal component analysis were performed to determine exposure to single-metal and multi-metal co-exposure in relation to DM. A decrease in risk of DM was associated with iron (OR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.61–1.00 and 0.68, 0.53–0.88 for the middle and high vs. low) and strontium (OR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.69–1.12 and 0.67, 0.51–0.86 for the middle and high vs. low), respectively. A principal component 3 (PC3) characterized by iron and strontium showed an inverse association with DM. A principal component 4 (PC4) characterized by manganese and lead positively associated with DM. Exposure to high concentrations of urinary iron and strontium may reduce the risk of diabetes mellitus. This study revealed an increase in the risk of diabetes mellitus by co-exposure to high concentrations of urinary manganese and lead.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge assistants from all persons involved in the project. And we are grateful to Prof. Xiaosong Li at Sichuan University for his leadership and fundamental contribution to the establishment of the CMEC. Prof. Li passed away in 2019 and will remain in our hearts forever.
Funding
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82173566) and the National Key R&D Program of China (NO. 2017YFC0907301).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection and analysis were performed by Qianyuan Yang, Yalan Liu, and Linyuan Zhang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Qianyuan Yang, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Sichuan University Medical Ethical Review Board (K2016038) and the Research Ethics Committee of The Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University (2018[094]).
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Yang, Q., Liu, Y., Liu, L. et al. Exposure to multiple metals and diabetes mellitus risk in dong ethnicity in China: from the China multi-ethnic cohort study. Environ Geochem Health 45, 2435–2445 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01366-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01366-x