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Renal impairment caused by chronic occupational chromate exposure

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Abstract

Purpose

To determine the nephritic toxicity of chromate after chronic occupational exposure.

Methods

The environmental contamination was assessed by measuring the chromium (Cr) in 8-h airborne sampler. The integrated level of Cr was determined by Cr concentrations in the whole blood (WB-Cr) and the urine (U-Cr). The renal glomerular and tubule impairment was evaluated by determination of cystatin C (Cys-C) in the serum and microalbumin (mALB), urinary beta2-microglobulin (β2M), N-acetyl-beta-d-glucosaminidase (NAG) activity in the urine.

Results

The mean occupational exposure time to Cr was 12.86 years with average daily air level of 27.13 μg/m3 comparing to 0.11 μg/m3 of the background level. The WB-Cr and U-Cr were 23.49 μg/L and 17.41 μg/g creatinine (Cre), respectively in the chromate-exposed workers comparing to 3.32 μg/L and 1.52 μg/g Cre in the controls. The serum Cys-C and urinary mALB were significantly increased in the chromate-exposed workers. Exposure to Cr seems to induce an enhanced level of urinary NAG activity and β2M concentration. The increased serum Cys-C concentration was positively correlated with the level of serum Cre. The U-Cr was positively correlated to the concentrations of urinary mALB, β2M, and the activity of NAG.

Conclusions

Chronic occupational exposure to chromate causes comprehensive renal impairment though more severity could occur in the tubule than in the glomeruler.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the grants of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 30571550) and the National Science and Technical Supporting Program of China (Project No. 2006BAI06B02 and Project 200902006). The authors wish to thank Drs. Aiguo Wu and Yuxin Zheng for critical review of the manuscript.

Competing interest declaration

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Third Hospital of Peking University, Beijing, China

    Tiancheng Wang

  2. Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Health Science Center, Peking University, Xueyuan Road, 100191, Haidian District, Beijing, China

    Guang Jia, Lei Yan, Xiang Wang, Xueyan Zhang, Zihong Liu, Xianmei Du & Sen Zhen

  3. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Jinan City, Shandong Province, China

    Ji Zhang, Yanhui Ma, Lanzheng Liu & Ning Zhang

  4. Laboratory for Bio-Environmental Health Sciences, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Weiyue Feng

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  1. Tiancheng Wang
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Correspondence to Guang Jia.

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Wang, T., Jia, G., Zhang, J. et al. Renal impairment caused by chronic occupational chromate exposure. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 84, 393–401 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-010-0569-4

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