Hypertension risk is associated with elevated concentrations of rare earth elements in serum

Qiuming Zhong; Mengda Cao; Yi Gu; Yiwei Fang; Tianyu Zhong; Jiahe Xie; Jinling Yan; Junyun Huang; Peng Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jtemb.2022.127084

Hypertension risk is associated with elevated concentrations of rare earth elements in serum

J Trace Elem Med Biol. 2022 Dec:74:127084. doi: 10.1016/j.jtemb.2022.127084. Epub 2022 Sep 21.

Authors

Qiuming Zhong¹, Mengda Cao², Yi Gu³, Yiwei Fang⁴, Tianyu Zhong⁴, Jiahe Xie⁴, Jinling Yan⁴, Junyun Huang⁴, Peng Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ The First Affiliated Hospital of Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou 341000, China. Electronic address: 609277033@qq.com.
² Department of Pharmacy, Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing 210044, China.
³ College of Resources and Environmental Sciences and Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
⁴ The First Affiliated Hospital of Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou 341000, China.
⁵ College of Resources and Environmental Sciences and Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China. Electronic address: p.wang3@njau.edu.cn.

PMID: 36182726
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtemb.2022.127084

Abstract

Background: Hypertension is a major contributor to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, affecting over 17.1 million individuals worldwide. Environmental exposure such as toxic trace elements could be risk factors for hypertension, but the associations of toxic metal exposure with hypertension are not well understood.

Methods: We recruited 400 volunteers consisting of 200 patients with hypertension (cases) and 200 healthy individuals without hypertension (controls). In the case or control group, half of the subjects came from the rare earth mining (REM) areas and the other half from non-REM areas. Serum levels of 8 rare earth elements (REEs) and 13 non-REEs were determined.

Results: The concentrations of Ce and La were significant higher in the cases than in the controls in all comparisons. Serum concentrations of Mg, Mn, Dy, Ce and La were positively correlated with blood pressure, while those of concentrations K and Se were negatively correlated with blood pressure (p < 0.05). Compared with the lowest quartiles, participants in the highest quartiles of Sm, Gd, Dy, Yb, La and Ce had a 6.01-fold (95 % CI: 2.28, 15.8), 3.29-fold (95 % CI: 1.18, 9.16), 4.07-fold (95 % CI: 1.51,10.9), 7.83-fold (95 % CI: 2.78, 22.4), 20.00-fold (95 % CI: 5.48-72.9) and 6.13-fold (95 % CI: 2.13-17.6) increase in the probability of having hypertension respectively. Among all the detected metals, the univariate odds ratios (UORs) and adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of hypertension for highest vs. lowest quartile serum concentrations of Sm, Gd, Dy, Yb, La and Ce were significantly > 1 (p < 0.05), with the positive dose-response relationships observed between their serum levels and ORs associated with hypertension risk.

Conclusions: Collectively, there appears to be a positive correlation between hypertension and environmental exposure to REEs, especially La and Ce. Further studies are warranted to investigate the underlying mechanisms responsible for the risk.

Keywords: Environmental exposure; Health risk; Hypertension; Rare earth elements.

MeSH terms

Environmental Exposure / adverse effects
Humans
Hypertension*
Metals, Rare Earth* / analysis
Mining
Trace Elements*

Substances

Metals, Rare Earth
Trace Elements