Journal Article

Urinary Biomarkers of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Are Associated with Cardiometabolic Health Risk

Rotondi, Michael A., Ardern, Chris I., Ranjbar, Mahsa, Kuk, Jennifer L.

2015

Overview

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are both man-made and naturally occurring environmental pollutants that may be related to cardiometabolic health risk. To determine whether PAH is associated with obesity in the adult population and to examine whether urinary concentrations of PAH metabolites are associated with differences in how obesity relates to 3 or more risk factors for the metabolic syndrome (3RFMetS), type 2 diabetes (T2D), hypertension, and dyslipidemia. A total of 4765 adult participants from the 2001-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were examined. The association between 8 urinary hydroxylated PAH metabolites, obesity, and health were examined using weighted logistic regressions adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, PIR, smoking status, and urinary creatinine. There was a positive dose-dependent association between obesity and 2-phenanthrene quintiles (P trend <0.0001). Contrarily, higher quintiles of 1-naphthalene were associated with lower risk of obesity (P trend = 0.0004). For a given BMI, those in the highest quintile of 2-naphthalene, 2-fluorene, 3-fluorene and 2-phenanthrene had a 66-80% greater likelihood of 3RFMetS (P≤0.05) compared to low levels. Higher quintiles of 1-naphthalene, 2-naphthalene, 2-phenanthrene and 1-pyrene were associated with a 78-124% greater likelihood of T2D (P≤0.05) compared to low levels while high 1-naphthalene, 2-naphthalene, 2-fluorene, 3-fluorene and 2-phenanthrene were associated with a 38-68% greater likelihood of dyslipidemia (P≤0.05) compared to lower levels. Finally, 2-naphthalene and 2-phenanthrene were positively associated with hypertension (P trend = 0.008 and P trend = 0.02 respectively). PAH is related to obesity and the expression of a number of obesity-related cardiometabolic health risk factors. Future research is needed to bring to light the mechanistic pathways related to these findings.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adult / Bioindicators / Biological markers / Biomarkers / Biomarkers - urine / Body mass / Canada / Cardiovascular disease / Cardiovascular diseases / Creatinine / Creatinine - urine / Diabetes mellitus / Diabetes mellitus (non-insulin dependent) / Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - chemically induced / Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - diagnosis / Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - urine / Diagnosis / Dyslipidemia / Dyslipidemias - chemically induced / Dyslipidemias - diagnosis / Dyslipidemias - urine / Environmental Pollutants - toxicity / Environmental Pollutants - urine / Female / Fluorene / Fluorenes - toxicity / Fluorenes - urine / Health aspects / Health risks / Humans / Hypertension / Hypertension - chemically induced / Hypertension - diagnosis / Hypertension - urine / Logistic Models / Male / Metabolic disorders / Metabolic syndrome / Metabolic Syndrome - chemically induced / Metabolic Syndrome - diagnosis / Metabolic Syndrome - urine / Metabolites / Middle Aged / Minority & ethnic groups / Naphthalene / Naphthalenes - toxicity / Naphthalenes - urine / Nutrition / Nutrition Surveys / Obesity / Obesity - chemically induced / Obesity - diagnosis / Obesity - urine / Phenanthrene / Phenanthrenes - toxicity / Phenanthrenes - urine / Pollutants / Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons / Pyrene / Pyrenes - toxicity / Pyrenes - urine / Risk / Risk analysis / Risk factors / Smoking