Human Inhalation Study with Zinc Oxide: Analysis of Zinc Levels and Biomarkers in Exhaled Breath Condensate
Workers in the zinc processing, for example, welding or hot-dip galvanizing, are exposed to aerosols consisting of particles and gases, including zinc oxide (ZnO), which can affect human health. In this study, we addressed the effects of short-term contro
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Human Inhalation Study with Zinc Oxide: Analysis of Zinc Levels and Biomarkers in Exhaled Breath Condensate Ch. Monsé, O. Hagemeyer, V. van Kampen, M. Raulf, T. Weiss, E. Menne, B. Jettkant, B. Kendzia, R. Merget, T. Brüning, and J. Bünger Abstract
Workers in the zinc processing, for example, welding or hot-dip galvanizing, are exposed to aerosols consisting of particles and gases, including zinc oxide (ZnO), which can affect human health. In this study, we addressed the effects of short-term controlled exposure to nano-sized ZnO on the airway inflammatory markers in healthy volunteers. To this end, we determined the influence of ZnO inhalation on the content of zinc and biomarkers (leukotriene B4 (LTB4), peptide leukotrienes (LTC4/ D4/E4), 8-iso-PGF2α, pH, and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2)) in exhaled breath condensate (EBC). Sixteen non-smoking subjects (8 females, 8 men) were exposed to filtered air (sham) or ZnO nanoparticles (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mg/m3) for 4 h. EBC samples were collected according to specific study design. We found that the peptide leukotrienes were below the limit of quantification (LOQ) in all the EBC samples. ZnO exposure showed no Ch. Monsé (*), O. Hagemeyer, V. van Kampen, M. Raulf, T. Weiss, E. Menne, B. Jettkant, B. Kendzia, R. Merget, T. Brüning, and J. Bünger Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance, Institute of the Ruhr University Bochum (IPA), Bochum, Germany e-mail: [email protected]
detectable effect on any other parameters investigated when comparing the two groups. The content of Zn in EBC was unaffected by ZnO inhalation at any concentration used. Therefore, we conclude that the evaluation of Zn and biomarker content in EBC would not be a suitable way to assess the exposure to inhaled ZnO. Keywords
Biomarkers · Exhaled breath condensate · Inhalation study · Nanoparticles · Zinc oxide
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Introduction
Zinc and zinc compounds, like ZnO, occur in many industrial processes. Especially, galvanizing and welding workers are exposed to nano-sized ZnO particles. Inhalation of ZnO particles is known to cause systemic inflammatory responses named “metal fume fever” or “zinc fever” (Nemery 1990). Generally, there is a latency of a few hours until the onset of symptoms that resolve spontaneously in 48 h. The experimental inhalation studies investigating zinc-containing welding fumes have shown that the inflammatory effects occur at ZnO
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concentrations below 2.0 mg/m3 (Brand et al. 2014; Hartmann et al. 2014). However, exposure to inhaled ZnO at 0.5 mg/m3 for 2 h at rest results in no apparent effects (Beckett et al. 2005). Recently, we have reported flu-like symptoms, fever, and a concentration-dependent increase of inflammatory markers in blood after exposure to inhaled ZnO nanoparticles at or above 1 mg/m3 (Monsé et al. 2018). In a further study in the same subjects, using the induced sputum, we detected reversible airway inflammation at a concentration of 0.5 mg/m3 and higher, with no Zn concentration dependency (Monsé et al. 2019).
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