Detecting exposure-dependent changes of liver detoxification capacity of children in a formerly high-loaded industrial area with a ¹⁵N-labelled diagnostic tool

Abstract

The effect of remediation activities in formerly high-loaded industrial areas is measured conventionally in terms of decreased toxic loads. It is more difficult to investigate the effect on physiological parameters of the people living there. A non-invasive ¹⁵N-based organ function test, the [¹⁵N]methacetin urine test, was adapted to environmental-medical purposes for the detection of small deviations from the norm-range hepatic detoxification capacity. Parallel to the measurement of region-specific external exposure (especially by tri- and tetrachloro ethylene) and of the corresponding internal load (urinary trichloro acetic acid), the hepatic mono oxygenation capacity was determined. The study cohort consisted of 35 kindergarten children who were 3.3 + −0.5 years old at the beginning of the study. They lived in a high-polluted industrial village (n = 23) and in a non-polluted control village close by (n = 12), respectively. Children living in the polluted area were exposed a 2.3 times higher load and showed detoxification capacities 6% lower than the children in the control area. Improvement of the environmental situation led to exposure data decreasing by 70%, which is also reflected in smaller internal load and improved liver detoxification of the children in the polluted area. Then, between loaded and control area the mean hepatic detoxification was no longer significantly different (0.6%). The study shows that chronic low-dose exposure can disturb a hepatic function and that thereafter the capacity is recovered quickly in children. The stable isotope-based test is suited to characterize a health effect of multicomponent exposure by bioeffect monitoring within the framework of screening and testing the remediation efficiency.

Keywords:

• Children
• External exposure
• Internal load
• Intervention study
• Liver detoxification capacity
• [15N]methacetin urine test

Acknowledgement

The authors thank the children and their parents as well as the leaders and the teams of the kindergartens Roitzsch and Greppin for excellent cooperation.