title: Urinary metabolomics revealed arsenic exposure related to metabolic alterations in general Chinese pregnant women.
abstract: Arsenic exposure is considered a major environmental threat to human health. It is already known that high-level arsenic exposure has adverse effects on human health. Since the pregnant women are known to be more susceptible to some chemical exposures than ordinary people, the understanding regarding the health effects of low-level arsenic exposure on pregnant women is critical and remains unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the urinary metabolic changes of pregnant women exposed to low-dose arsenic, and to identify biomarkers from metabolomics analysis. Urine samples of 246 pregnant women were collected in the first trimester of pregnancy and were divided into three groups based on the tertile distribution of urinary arsenic concentrations which were determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Changes in the metabolite profile were measured using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF MS). Arsenic- related metabolic biomarkers were investigated by comparing the samples of the first and third tertiles of arsenic exposure classifications using a partial least-squares discriminant model (PLS-DA). Nine urine potential biomarkers were putatively identified, including LysoPC (14:0), glutathione, 18-carboxy-dinor-LTE4, 20-COOH-LTE4, cystathionine ketimin, 1-(beta-d-ribofuranosyl)-1,4-dihydronicotinamide, thiocysteine, p-cresol glucuronide and vanillactic acid. The obtained results showed that environmental arsenic exposure, even at low levels, could cause metabolite alterations in pregnant women which might be associated with adverse health outcomes. This is the first report on metabolic changes in pregnant women for arsenic exposure. The findings may be valuable for the arsenic risk assessment for pregnant women.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Mu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, Beijing 100850, China.
authors.forename: Qiande
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Shuna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Xiaojie
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Yangqian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Xingyun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Yanqiu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Women and Children Medical and Healthcare Center of Wuhan, Wuhan 430015, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Women and Children Medical and Healthcare Center of Wuhan, Wuhan 430015, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Aifen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Women and Children Medical and Healthcare Center of Wuhan, Wuhan 430015, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Yiming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Women and Children Medical and Healthcare Center of Wuhan, Wuhan 430015, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Zhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Women and Children Medical and Healthcare Center of Wuhan, Wuhan 430015, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Jiangxia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: College of Health Science and Nursing, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Hongling
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Brown University, Providence, RI 02903, USA.
authors.forename: Tongzhang
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University, 224 Waterloo Road, Kowloon Tong 999077, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Zongwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei, China. Electronic address: liyuanyuan@hust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei, China. Electronic address: xust@hust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shunqing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019540:Area Under Curve; D020261:Arsenic Poisoning / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000652:urine*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D003540:Cystathionine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000652:urine; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D005978:Glutathione / Q000652:urine; D006719:Homovanillic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000652:urine; D006801:Humans; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D055432:Metabolomics; D011247:Pregnancy; D012372:ROC Curve; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; C003753:vanillactic acid; D003540:Cystathionine; C038681:cystathionine ketimine; D005978:Glutathione; D006719:Homovanillic Acid
keywords: Arsenic exposure; Biomarkers; Early pregnancy; ICP-MS; Metabolomics; UPLC/Q-TOF MS