Abstract
BackgroundDietary factors such as folate, vitamin B12, protein, and methionine are important for the excretion of arsenic via one-carbon metabolism in undernourished populations exposed to high levels of arsenic via drinking water. However, the effects of dietary factors on toenail arsenic concentrations in well-nourished populations exposed to relatively low levels of water arsenic are unknown.MethodsAs part of a population-based case–control study of skin and bladder cancer from the USA, we evaluated relationships between consumption of dietary factors and arsenic concentrations in toenail clippings. Consumption of each dietary factor was determined from a validated food frequency questionnaire. We used general linear models to examine the associations between toenail arsenic and each dietary factor, taking into account potentially confounding effects.ResultsAs expected, we found an inverse association between ln-transformed toenail arsenic and consumption of vitamin B12 (excluding supplements) and animal protein. Unexpectedly, there were also inverse associations with numerous dietary lipids (e.g., total fat, total animal fat, total vegetable fat, total monounsaturated fat, total polyunsaturated fat, and total saturated fat). Finally, increased toenail arsenic concentrations were associated with increased consumption of long chain n-3 fatty acids.ConclusionIn a relatively well-nourished population exposed to relatively low levels of arsenic via water, consumption of certain dietary lipids may decrease toenail arsenic concentration, while long chain n-3 fatty acids may increase toenail arsenic concentration, possibly due to their association with arsenolipids in fish tissue.
Highlights
Dietary factors such as folate, vitamin B12, protein, and methionine are important for the excretion of arsenic via one-carbon metabolism in undernourished populations exposed to high levels of arsenic via drinking water
Our study population included 920 individuals with household water arsenic concentrations ranging from 0.004 μg/L to 158 μg/L, with a median toenail arsenic concentration of 0.085 μg/g (IQR, 0.059 – 0.132; range 0.016 – 1.816)
Summary statistics for those dietary factors found to be significantly related to toenail arsenic are provided in Additional File 2
Summary
Dietary factors such as folate, vitamin B12, protein, and methionine are important for the excretion of arsenic via one-carbon metabolism in undernourished populations exposed to high levels of arsenic via drinking water. For. foods contain factors that are important for one-carbon metabolism, the process by which inorganic arsenic (iAs) is methylated [15,16] and removed from the body. In populations with nutritional deficiencies and high exposure to inorganic arsenic via drinking water, dietary factors important to complete one-carbon metabolism – including folic acid [18,22,23], vitamin B12 [24], protein [24,25,26], and methionine [24,25] – appear to facilitate the excretion of arsenic from the body
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