Association of blood metals and metal mixtures with the myocardial enzyme profile: an occupational population-based study in China

Abstract

To investigate a cross-sectional association between blood metal mixture and myocardial enzyme profile, we quantified creatine kinase (CK), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB), lactate dehydrogenase (LD), α-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (α-HBD), and aspartate transaminase (AST) levels among participants from the manganese-exposed workers healthy cohort (MEWHC) (n = 544). The levels of 22 metals in blood cells were determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) penalized regression model was utilized for screening metals. The exposure-response relationship between specific metal and myocardial enzyme profile was identified by general linear regression and restricted cubic spline analyses. The overall effect and interactions were evaluated using Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR). Manganese was linearly and positively associated with CK (P_overall = 0.019, P_{non−linearity} = 0.307), dominating the positive overall-effect of mixture exposure (manganese, arsenic, and rubidium) on CK levels. Calcium and zinc were linearly and negatively associated with LD levels (P_overall < 0.05, P_{non−linearity} > 0.05), and asserted dominance in the negative overall-effect of metal mixtures (rubidium, molybdenum, zinc, nickel, cobalt, calcium, and magnesium) on LD levels. Interestingly, we observed a U-shaped dose-response relationship of molybdenum with LD levels (P_overall < 0.001, P_{non−linearity} = 0.015), an interaction between age and calcium on LD levels (P_interation = 0.041), and an interaction between smoking and molybdenum on LD levels (P_interation = 0.035). Our study provides evidence that metal mixture exposure affects the myocardial enzyme profile. Additional investigation is required to confirm these associations, and to reveal the fundamental mechanisms involved.