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Associations of metal mixtures with thyroid function and potential interactions with iodine status: results from a cross-sectional study in MEWHC

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Abstract

Few studies are available on associations between metal mixture exposures and disrupted thyroid hormone homeostasis; particularly, the role of iodine status was ignored. Here, we aimed to explore the cross-sectional relationship of blood cell metals with thyroid homeostasis and explore the potential modifying effect of iodine status. Among 328 workers from the manganese-exposed workers healthy cohort (MEWHC), we detected thyroid function parameters: thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), total triiodothyronine (TT3), free triiodothyronine (FT3), total tetraiodothyronine (TT4), free tetraiodothyronine (FT4) as well as calculated sum activity of peripheral deiodinases (GD) and thyroid’s secretory capacity (GT). Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to measure 22 metal concentrations in blood cells. Based on the consistent results of least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) analyses, there were significant positive associations between copper and TSH (β = 2.016), iron and FT4 (β = 0.403), titanium and GD (β = 0.142), nickel and GD (β = 0.057), and negative associations between copper and FT4 (β =  − 0.226), selenium and GD (β =  − 0.332), among the participants. Interestingly, we observed an inverted-U shape relationship between magnesium and FT4. Furthermore, we found a synergistic effect between arsenic and copper on the TSH level, while antagonistic effects between nickel and copper as well as nickel and selenium on the TSH level. We observed a modified effect of iodine status on association between strontium and GD (Pinteraction = 0.026). It suggests metal mixture exposures can alter thyroid homeostasis among the occupational population, and deiodinase activity had a modified effect on association between strontium and GD. Validation of these associations and elucidation of underlying mechanisms require further researches in the future.

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Data availability

Data will be made available on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

MEWHC:

Manganese-exposed workers healthy cohort

TSH:

Thyroid stimulating hormone

TT3:

Total triiodothyronine

FT3:

Free triiodothyronine

TT4:

Total tetraiodothyronine

FT4:

Free tetraiodothyronine

GD :

Sum activity of peripheral deiodinases

GT :

Thyroid's secretory capacity

ICP-MS:

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

LASSO:

Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator

BKMR:

Bayesian kernel machine regression

Cu:

Copper

Fe:

Iron

Ti:

Titanium

Ni:

Nickel

Se:

Selenium

Mg:

Magnesium

As:

Arsenic

Sr:

Strontium

Mg:

Magnesium

Ca:

Calcium

V:

Vanadium

Cr:

Chromium

Mn:

Manganese

Co:

Cobalt

Zn:

Zinc

Rb:

Rubidium

Mo:

Molybdenum

Cd:

Cadmium

Sn:

Tin

Sb:

Antimony

Ba:

Barium

Pb:

Lead

LOD:

Limit of detection

BMI:

Body mass index

MSE:

Mean square error

GLM:

General liner model

PIP:

Posterior inclusion probabilities

TPO:

Heme-containing thyroperoxidases

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Acknowledgements

We thank all our colleagues and subjects who participated in this study.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U21A20340 and 82073504) and Middle-aged and Young Teachers’ Basic Ability Promotion Project of Guangxi (No. 2023KY0347).

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Author notes

  1. Xiaoting Ge, Junxiu He, and Sencai Lin contributed equally to this article.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Guangxi University of Science and Technology, Liuzhou, 545006, China

    Xiaoting Ge

  2. Department of Occupational Health and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, China

    Junxiu He, Sencai Lin, Yu Bao, Yuan Zheng, Hong Cheng, Haiqing Cai, Xiuming Feng, Wenjun Yang, Sihan Hu, Fei Wang, Cahoqun Liu, Xing Chen, Yunfeng Zou & Xiaobo Yang

  3. School of Science, Guangxi University of Science and Technology, Liuzhou, 545006, China

    Lin Wang & Qijing Liao

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Contributions

Xiaoting Ge: writing — original draft, writing — review and editing. Junxiu He: writing — original draft, writing — review and editing. Sencai Lin: writing — original draft, writing — review and editing. Yu Bao: investigation and data curation. Yuan Zheng: investigation and data curation. Hong Cheng: investigation and data curation. Haiqing Cai: investigation and data curation. Xiuming Feng: investigation and data curation. Wenjun Yang: investigation and data curation. Sihan Hu: investigation and data curation. Lin Wang: investigation and data curation. Qijing Liao: investigation and data curation. Fei Wang: writing — review and editing. Chaoqun Liu: writing — review and editing. Xing Chen: writing — review and editing. Yunfeng Zou: conceptualization. Xiaobo Yang: supervision and project administration.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaobo Yang.

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The study was approved by the medical ethics committee at Guangxi Medical University (ID: 20220017).

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Highlights

• An inverted-U shape relationship was observed between Mg and free tetraiodothyronine.

• A synergistic effect can be found between As and Cu on thyroid stimulating hormone level.

• An antagonistic effect can be found between Ni-Cu and Ni-Se on thyroid stimulating hormone level.

• Iodine status has a modified effect on association between Sr and sum activity of peripheral deiodinases.

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Supplementary file1 (DOC 15681 KB)

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Ge, X., He, J., Lin, S. et al. Associations of metal mixtures with thyroid function and potential interactions with iodine status: results from a cross-sectional study in MEWHC. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 105665–105674 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29682-4

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