【小夏的论文笔记】尿代谢组学研究显示中国整体孕妇代谢改变与砷暴露有关

Urinary metabolomics revealed arsenic exposure related to metabolic alterations in general Chinese pregnant women
尿代谢组学研究显示中国整体孕妇代谢改变与砷暴露有关

原文链接：http://www.sciencedirect.com/sci ... i/S0021967316316193

这是第一篇报道孕妇代谢改变与砷暴露之间关系的报告。
该研究使用电感耦合等离子体质谱ICP-MS和超高效液相色谱与四极杆飞行时间串联质谱联用（UPLC / Q-TOF MS）来分别测试尿砷浓度和9种砷相关代谢生物标志物。按尿砷浓度三分组为低中高暴露组。使用偏最小二乘判别模型（PLS-DA）比较三分组间各砷相关代谢生物标志物差异。结果显示即使低水平的环境砷暴露也可能导致孕妇的代谢改变。

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.

Keywords
Metabolomics; Arsenic exposure; Early pregnancy; ICP-MS; UPLC/Q-TOF MS; Biomarkers

昨天的trimester在老大的指正之后，今天特别重点关注了一下tertile[三分位]这个词，其实也就是毒理学里面常见的“低”、“中”、“高”暴露分组。

很多研究都没有直接使用原始的测量数据，而是将原始数据认为进行分组之后再进行比较。这一点我最近一直有点困惑，把计量资料改为分类变量降低了资料的信息量，按说也会降低检验的效能，既然这样，为什么要用改为分类变量进行分组对组间进行比较，而不是使用回归来判定增减变化的趋势呢？