Abstract
The most important welding processes used are the gas metal arc (GMA) welding, the tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, and the manual metal arc (MMA) welding processes. The goal of our investigation was to monitor the distribution of iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) in the lung, spleen, liver, and kidney of mice after inhalation exposure of different welding methods using different steel base materials. The treatment groups were the following: MMA-mild steel, MMA-molybdenum-manganese (MoMn) alloy, TIG-mild steel, and TIG-stainless steel. The samples were taken 24 and 96 h after the treatments. Most importantly, it was found that the Mn concentration in the lung’ samples of the MMA-mild steel and the MMA-MoMn groups was increased extremely at both sampling times and in the spleen’ samples also. In the TIG groups, the rise of the Mn concentration was only considerable in the lungs and spleens at 24 h, and emerged concentration was found in the liver in 96 h samples. Histopathology demonstrated emerged siderin content in the spleens of the treated animals and in siderin filled macrophages in the lungs mostly in all treated groups. Traces of high-level glycogen retention was found in the MMA groups at both sampling times. Similar glycogen retention in TIG-Ms and TIG stainless group’s liver samples and emerged number of vacuoles, especially in the hepatocytes of the TIG-stainless steel 96 h group were also found. The mentioned results raise the consequence that there is a considerable difference in the kinetics of the Mn distribution between the MMA- and the TIG-fume–treated groups. Hence, the result suggests that manganese has a particle-size–dependent toxico-kinetics property. The anomaly of the glycogen metabolism indicates the systemic effect of the welding fumes. Also, the numerous vacuoles mentioned above show a possible liver-specific adverse effect of some components of the TIG-stainless steel welding fumes.
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Data availability
The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank to László Gyura and the Linde Gáz Magyarország Zrt. (Répcelak, Hungary) and to the KL-System Limited (Cegléd, Hungary) for all the technical help they gave us and made available to perform the experiment. The authors also would like to thank András Bartha PhD (Department of Animal Hygiene, University of Veterinary Medicine, Budapest, Hungary) for his kind help in the chemical analysis of the biological samples.
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This research was supported by the 12190/2017/FEKUTSTRAT grant of the Hungarian Ministry of Human Resources. Additional support was given by National Research, Development and Innovation Office under the grant FK_18 ID: 129055.
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Csaba Kővágó: chief researcher, responsible for experimental design, performance and data analysis and is the main writer of the manuscript.
Barbara Szekeres: co-working student, gave manual help during the experiments. She did a great job at the analysis of the results.
Éva Szűcs-Somlyó: co-working PhD student. She gave support for the writing of the manuscript.
Kornél Májlinger: senior researcher, mechanical and welding engineer. He supervised the technological setup of the welding experiment and gave support during writing this manuscript.
Ákos Jerzsele: Head of Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. He gave general support to perform the experimental setup detailed in the manuscript.
József Lehel: senior researcher, he gave supervision during the animal experiment, helped to analyze the results and gave huge support to writing the manuscript.
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All applicable international, national and or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. The experiment (and the experimental protocol of the study) was performed with the permission of Animal Experiment Allowance No. PE/EA/289–7/2018 given by the Animal Protection Authority of the Hungarian Government Office.
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Kővágó, C., Szekeres, B., Szűcs-Somlyó, É. et al. Preliminary study to investigate the distribution and effects of certain metals after inhalation of welding fumes in mice. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 49147–49160 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19234-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19234-7