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Mediation effect of serum zinc on insulin secretion inhibited by methyl tert-butyl ether in gas station workers

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Abstract

Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), a type of gasoline additive, has been found to affect insulin function and glucose homeostasis in animal experiments, but there is still no epidemiological evidence. Zinc (Zn) is a key regulatory element of insulin secretion and function, and Zn homeostasis can be disrupted by MTBE exposure through inducing oxidative stress. Therefore, we suspected that Zn might be involved and play an important role in the process of insulin secretion inhibited by MTBE exposure. In this study, we recruited 201 male subjects including occupational and non-occupational MTBE exposure from Anhui Province, China in 2019. Serum insulin and functional analog fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1) and blood MTBE were detected by Elisa and headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry. According to MTBE internal exposure level, the workers were divided into low- and high-exposed groups and found that the serum insulin level in the high-exposed group was significantly lower than that in the low-exposed group (p = 0.003) while fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level increased obviously in the high-exposed group compared to the low-exposed group (p = 0.001). Further analysis showed that MTBE exposure level was positively correlated with FPG level, but negatively correlated with serum insulin level, which suggested that the FPG level increase might be related to the decrease of serum insulin level induced by MTBE exposure. The results of further mediation effect analysis showed that changes in serum zinc levels played a major intermediary role in the process of insulin secretion inhibition and blood glucose elevation caused by MTBE exposure. In addition, a significant negative correlation was found between MTBE exposure and serum Zn level, which might play a strong mediating effect on the inhibition of insulin secretion induced by MTBE exposure. In conclusion, our study provided evidence that MTBE could inhibit insulin secretion and interfere with Zn metabolism in gas station workers for the first time, and found that Zn might play an important mediation effect during the process of inhibiting insulin secretion and interfering with glucose metabolism induced by MTBE exposure.

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Data Availability

The data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC No.81973009).

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  1. Mingxiao Guo, Mengdi Li, and Fengtao Cui contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Occupational Health and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100069, China

    Mingxiao Guo, Mengdi Li, Hanyun Wang, Li Chen, Piye Niu & Junxiang Ma

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100069, China

    Mingxiao Guo, Mengdi Li, Hanyun Wang, Li Chen, Piye Niu & Junxiang Ma

  3. Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Hospital of Huaibei Mining Co., Ltd., Huaibei, 235000, Anhui Province, China

    Fengtao Cui, Xinping Ding, Wei Gao & Xingqiang Fang

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  1. Mingxiao Guo
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Contributions

Mingxiao Guo performed laboratory measurements, statistical analysis, drafting, and editing of the final manuscript; Mengdi Li participated in the investigation, laboratory measurements, sample collection, and the face-to-face interview; Fengtao Cui, Xinping Ding, Xingqiang Fang, and Wei Gao performed the investigation, data curation, and sample collection; Hanyun Wang performed the sample collection and laboratory measurements; Li Chen provided suggestions for statistical analysis; Piye Niu performed the investigation, data curation, methodology, supervision, and manuscript—review and editing; Junxiang Ma performed the design, methodology, supervision, writing—review and editing, project administration, and resources.

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Correspondence to Junxiang Ma.

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11356_2023_31772_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Supplementary file1. The distribution of internal exposure levels among participants. The distribution of (A) MTBE, (B) TBA levels among participants. (PDF 1230 KB)

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Guo, M., Li, M., Cui, F. et al. Mediation effect of serum zinc on insulin secretion inhibited by methyl tert-butyl ether in gas station workers. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 8952–8962 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31772-2

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