Associations of urine arsenic, blood manganese, and serum zinc with pterygium in Korean adults

IF 3.6 3区医学 Q2 BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology Pub Date : 2025-10-08 DOI:10.1016/j.jtemb.2025.127776

Kyunghee Han , Kyoung-Woong Kim , Yoon-Hyeong Choi

{"title":"Associations of urine arsenic, blood manganese, and serum zinc with pterygium in Korean adults","authors":"Kyunghee Han , Kyoung-Woong Kim , Yoon-Hyeong Choi","doi":"10.1016/j.jtemb.2025.127776","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Pterygium, a fleshy growth of abnormal fibrovascular tissues on eye conjunctiva, is common in older adults. The mechanism underlying pterygium development is still unknown, but oxidative stress is considered one of the main causes. Arsenic (As), which is ubiquitous in nature, may adversely affect human health by inducing oxidative stress. On the other hand, manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) play an important role in enhancing the antioxidant system.</div></div><div><h3>Objective</h3><div>We aimed to investigate the associations of As, Mn, and Zn with pterygium in general Korean adults using data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2008–2010.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>The study population included 2832 adults from KNHANES 2008–2009 for As and Mn analyses and 1872 adults from KNHANES 2010 for Zn analyses (the only year for which serum zinc was measured). Pterygium was diagnosed as a wing-shaped fibrovascular growth using a slit-lamp. Environmental exposure levels of total As and As species were estimated by measuring their concentrations in urine. Mn and Zn were estimated by measuring in blood and serum, respectively.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The prevalence of pterygium was 4.9–5.6 %. After adjusting for confounding factors, the odds ratio (OR) for pterygium in the highest tertile (vs. the lowest) of total As levels in urine was 1.84 (95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.09–3.09). Total As levels had a dose-dependent association with pterygium (<em>p</em>-trend = 0.021). Urinary arsenobetaine levels were further adjusted to exclude the contribution of organic As from seafood intake, and the OR for pterygium became stronger but less significant (6.54 (95 % CI: 0.82–51.92)) in the subset with As species measured (n = 280). The OR for pterygium in the second tertile of Mn levels in blood was 0.53 (95 % CI: 0.34–0.84). There was no significant association between serum Zn and pterygium.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Our findings provide epidemiological evidence that excess As and deficient Mn may be associated with pterygium in Korean adults.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49970,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 127776"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0946672X25001890","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Pterygium, a fleshy growth of abnormal fibrovascular tissues on eye conjunctiva, is common in older adults. The mechanism underlying pterygium development is still unknown, but oxidative stress is considered one of the main causes. Arsenic (As), which is ubiquitous in nature, may adversely affect human health by inducing oxidative stress. On the other hand, manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) play an important role in enhancing the antioxidant system.

Objective

We aimed to investigate the associations of As, Mn, and Zn with pterygium in general Korean adults using data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2008–2010.

Methods

The study population included 2832 adults from KNHANES 2008–2009 for As and Mn analyses and 1872 adults from KNHANES 2010 for Zn analyses (the only year for which serum zinc was measured). Pterygium was diagnosed as a wing-shaped fibrovascular growth using a slit-lamp. Environmental exposure levels of total As and As species were estimated by measuring their concentrations in urine. Mn and Zn were estimated by measuring in blood and serum, respectively.

Results

The prevalence of pterygium was 4.9–5.6 %. After adjusting for confounding factors, the odds ratio (OR) for pterygium in the highest tertile (vs. the lowest) of total As levels in urine was 1.84 (95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.09–3.09). Total As levels had a dose-dependent association with pterygium (p-trend = 0.021). Urinary arsenobetaine levels were further adjusted to exclude the contribution of organic As from seafood intake, and the OR for pterygium became stronger but less significant (6.54 (95 % CI: 0.82–51.92)) in the subset with As species measured (n = 280). The OR for pterygium in the second tertile of Mn levels in blood was 0.53 (95 % CI: 0.34–0.84). There was no significant association between serum Zn and pterygium.

Conclusion

Our findings provide epidemiological evidence that excess As and deficient Mn may be associated with pterygium in Korean adults.

查看原文本刊更多论文

韩国成人中尿砷、血锰和血清锌与翼状胬肉的关系。

背景：翼状胬肉是眼结膜上异常纤维血管组织的肉质增生，常见于老年人。翼状胬肉发生的机制尚不清楚，但氧化应激被认为是主要原因之一。砷（As）在自然界中普遍存在，可通过诱导氧化应激对人体健康产生不利影响。另一方面，锰（Mn）和锌（Zn）在增强抗氧化系统中起重要作用。目的：利用2008-2010年韩国国家健康与营养调查（KNHANES）的数据，我们旨在调查普通韩国成年人中砷、锰和锌与翼状胬肉的关系。方法：研究人群包括来自KNHANES 2008-2009年进行砷和锰分析的2832名成年人和来自KNHANES 2010年进行锌分析的1872名成年人（这是唯一测量血清锌的年份）。利用裂隙灯诊断为翼状纤维血管生长。总砷和砷种类的环境暴露水平是通过测量它们在尿液中的浓度来估计的。分别测定血液和血清中的锰和锌。结果：翼状胬肉患病率为4.9 ~ 5.6% %。在调整了混杂因素后，尿中总砷水平最高分位数（vs.最低分位数）中翼状胬肉的优势比（OR）为1.84（95 %置信区间（CI）： 1.09-3.09）。总砷水平与翼状胬肉呈剂量依赖性（p-trend = 0.021）。进一步调整尿砷甜菜碱水平以排除海鲜摄入的有机砷的贡献，在测量了砷种类的亚组（n = 280）中，翼状胬肉的OR变得更强但不那么显著（6.54(95 % CI: 0.82-51.92)）。二分之一血锰水平对翼状胬肉的OR值为0.53（95 % CI: 0.34-0.84）。血清锌与翼状胬肉无显著相关性。结论：我们的研究结果提供了流行病学证据，表明过量的砷和缺乏的锰可能与韩国成年人的翼状胬肉有关。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology 医学-内分泌学与代谢

CiteScore

6.60

自引率

2.90%

发文量

202

审稿时长

85 days

期刊介绍： The journal provides the reader with a thorough description of theoretical and applied aspects of trace elements in medicine and biology and is devoted to the advancement of scientific knowledge about trace elements and trace element species. Trace elements play essential roles in the maintenance of physiological processes. During the last decades there has been a great deal of scientific investigation about the function and binding of trace elements. The Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology focuses on the description and dissemination of scientific results concerning the role of trace elements with respect to their mode of action in health and disease and nutritional importance. Progress in the knowledge of the biological role of trace elements depends, however, on advances in trace elements chemistry. Thus the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology will include only those papers that base their results on proven analytical methods. Also, we only publish those articles in which the quality assurance regarding the execution of experiments and achievement of results is guaranteed.