Evidence suggests that exposure to
arsenic in
drinking water during early childhood or in utero has been associated with an increase in respiratory symptoms or diseases in the adulthood, however only a few studies have been carried out during those sensitive windows of exposure. Recently our group demonstrated that the exposure to
arsenic during early childhood or in utero in children was associated with impairment in the lung function and suggested that this adverse effect could be due to a chronic
inflammation response to the
metalloid. Therefore, we designed this cross-sectional study in a cohort of children associating lung inflammatory
biomarkers and lung function with urinary As levels. A total of 275 healthy children were partitioned into four study groups according with their
arsenic urinary levels.
Inflammation biomarkers were measured in sputum by ELISA and the lung function was evaluated by spirometry. Fifty eight percent of the studied children were found to have a restrictive spirometric pattern. In the two highest exposed groups, the soluble
receptor for advanced glycation end products' (sRAGE) sputum level was significantly lower and
matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) concentration was higher. When the
biomarkers were correlated to the urinary
arsenic species, negative associations were found between dimethylarsinic (DMA), monomethylarsonic percentage (%MMA) and dimethylarsinic percentage (%DMA) with sRAGE and positive associations between %DMA with MMP-9 and with the
MMP-9/
tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP-1) ratio. In conclusion, chronic
arsenic exposure of children negatively correlates with sRAGE, and positively correlated with MMP-9 and
MMP-9/TIMP-1 levels, and increases the frequency of an abnormal spirometric pattern.
Arsenic-induced alterations in inflammatory
biomarkers may contribute to the development of restrictive
lung diseases.