ABSTRACT
Objective@#To explore the association between urinary metals and lung function among college students, and to provide a theoretical basis for related research on metal exposure and lung function injury.@*Methods@#A total of 45 healthy college students were recruited from North China University of Science and Technology in Caofeidian between 2017-2018. During the four seasons, information was obtained from questionnaires and physical examinations, lung function parameters were assessed, including FVC, FEV1, PEF, FEV1/FVC and FEF 25-75 , and morning urine samples were collected simultaneously. The urinary levels of 15 metals were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP/MS); a Kruskal Wallis H test was used to compare differences in urinary metals during the four seasons; and a mixed effect model was used to assess correlations between urinary metals and lung function.@*Results@#There were significant differences in the levels of urinary chromium, iron, nickel, copper, zinc, arsenic, selenium, selenium, molybdenum, cadmium, antimony and lead from 15 metals over the four seasons ( H =9.79- 20.61 , P <0.05). The differences observed in five lung function parameters over the four seasons were statistically significant ( F =61.72, 45.30, 47.61, 25.47, 35.13, P <0.05). The linear mixed effect model analysis showed that urinary concentrations of vanadium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel and antimony were negatively correlated with FEV1( B =0.202, 0.192, 0.181, 0.154, 0.131 , 0.283); urinary concentrations of aluminum, vanadium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, zinc, cadmium, and antimony were negatively correlated with FVC ( B =0.252, 0.290, 0.292, 0.271, 0.201, 0.180, 0.171, 0.163, 0.381); urinary concentrations of manganese and antimony were negatively correlated with PEF ( B =0.291, 0.354)( P <0.05).@*Conclusion@#The increase of multiple metal concentrations among college students was related to lung function decline, the long term metal exposure might lead to lung function damage. So environmental metal pollution should be controlled.
ABSTRACT
The aim of this experiment was to investigate the protective effects of polysaccharides of sea cucumber Acaudina leucoprocta (ALP) against hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) induced oxidative injury in RAW264.7 cells. Analysis of monosaccharide composition and structure of one fraction from ALP (ALPN) were analyzed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectoscopy (FT-IR). The results showed that ALPN contain sulfate groups, which is sulfated polysaccharides. The results from MTT assay indicated that ALPN could markedly increase viability of cells compared with RAW264.7 cells exposed to H2O2. Moreover, ALPN significantly increased the levels of catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), decreased the production of malondialdehyde (MDA) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in RAW264.7 cells. The data from RT-PCR showed that ALPN (300⯵g/mL) could increase the gene expression levels of SOD1 and GPX1. ALPN could also observably increase the protein expression level of Nrf2 and decrease the protein expression level of Keap1 with western blot. Collectively, this study suggested that polysaccharides of sea cucumber Acaudina leucoprocta (ALP) could effectively protect RAW264.7 cells against H2O2-induced oxidative injury. This protection mechanism may be related to activation of the Nrf2/Keap1 signaling pathway.