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Arsenic Metabolites and Methylation Capacity Among Individuals Living in a Rural Area with Endemic Arseniasis in Inner Mongolia, China

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Abstract

More than 0.3 million individuals are subject to chronic exposure to arsenic via their drinking water in Inner Mongolia, China. To determine arsenic methylation capacity profiles for such individuals, concentrations of urinary arsenic metabolites were measured for 548 subjects using high-performance liquid chromatography and a hydride generator combined with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Mean urinary concentrations of dimethylarsonic acid (DMA), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA), inorganic arsenic (iAs), and total arsenic (TAs) were 200.50, 46.71, 52.96, and 300.17 μg/L, respectively. The %iAs, %DMA, and %MMA were 15.98, 69.72, and 14.29 %. Mean urinary %iAs and %MMA were higher in males, while urinary %DMA was higher in females. There was a strong positive correlation between %iAs and %MMA, with negative correlations between %iAs and %DMA, and %iAs and %MMA. In addition, %iAs and %MMA were positively associated with total arsenic in drinking water (WAs), while %DMA was negatively related with WAs. Regression analysis indicated that the primary methylation index (PMI) and secondary methylation index (SMI) generally decreased with increasing WAs. Females had a higher arsenic methylation capacity compared to males. Younger subjects had lower primary arsenic methylation capacity. However, the secondary arsenic methylation capacity was hardly affected by age. Moreover, both primary and secondary arsenic methylation capacities were negatively related to WAs.

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Acknowledgments

The work described in this paper was financially supported by the State Key Program of National Natural Science of China (Grant No. 41230749) and the National Public Welfare Sectors (Agriculture) special research fund (Project No. 201203012-6).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11 A Datun Road, Beijing, 100101, People’s Republic of China

    Binggan Wei, Jiangping Yu, Hairong Li, Linsheng Yang & Jianwei Gao

  2. Inner Mongolia Center for Endemic Disease Control and Research, Huhhot, Inner Mongolia, China

    Yajuan Xia, Kegong Wu, Zhiwei Guo & Na Cui

Authors
  1. Binggan Wei
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  2. Jiangping Yu
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  3. Hairong Li
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  4. Linsheng Yang
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  5. Yajuan Xia
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  6. Kegong Wu
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  8. Zhiwei Guo
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  9. Na Cui
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Correspondence to Linsheng Yang.

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Wei, B., Yu, J., Li, H. et al. Arsenic Metabolites and Methylation Capacity Among Individuals Living in a Rural Area with Endemic Arseniasis in Inner Mongolia, China. Biol Trace Elem Res 170, 300–308 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-015-0490-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-015-0490-5

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