Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Environmental Health Perspectives logoLink to Environmental Health Perspectives
. 2003 Dec;111(16):1888–1891. doi: 10.1289/ehp.6254

Profile of urinary arsenic metabolites during pregnancy.

Claudia Hopenhayn 1, Bin Huang 1, Jay Christian 1, Cecilia Peralta 1, Catterina Ferreccio 1, Raja Atallah 1, David Kalman 1
PMCID: PMC1241762  PMID: 14644662

Abstract

Chronic exposure to inorganic arsenic (In-As) from drinking water is associated with different health effects, including skin, lung, bladder, and kidney cancer as well as vascular and possibly reproductive effects. In-As is metabolized through the process of methylation, resulting in the production and excretion of methylated species, mainly monomethylarsenate (MMA) and dimethylarsenate (DMA). Because a large percentage of the dose is excreted in urine, the distribution of urinary In-As, MMA, and DMA is considered a useful indicator of methylation patterns in human populations. Several factors affect these patterns, including sex and exposure level. In this study, we investigated the profile of urinary In-As, MMA, and DMA of pregnant women. Periodic urine samples were collected from early to late pregnancy among 29 pregnant women living in Antofagasta, Chile, who drank tap water containing 40 micro g/L In-As. The total urinary arsenic across four sampling periods increased with increasing weeks of gestation, from an initial mean value of 36.1 to a final value of 54.3 micro g/L. This increase was mainly due to an increase in DMA, resulting in lower percentages of In-As and MMA and a higher percentage of DMA. Our findings indicate that among women exposed to moderate arsenic from drinking water during pregnancy, changes occur in the pattern of urinary arsenic excretion and metabolite distribution. The toxicologic significance of this is not clear, given recent evidence suggesting that intermediate methylated species may be highly toxic. Nevertheless, this study suggests that arsenic metabolism changes throughout the course of pregnancy, which in turn may have toxicologic effects on the developing fetus. Key words: arsenic, arsenic metabolism, arsenic methylation, Chile, pregnancy, urinary arsenic.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (131.9 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Aposhian H. V., Arroyo A., Cebrian M. E., del Razo L. M., Hurlbut K. M., Dart R. C., Gonzalez-Ramirez D., Kreppel H., Speisky H., Smith A. DMPS-arsenic challenge test. I: Increased urinary excretion of monomethylarsonic acid in humans given dimercaptopropane sulfonate. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 1997 Jul;282(1):192–200. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Concha G., Vogler G., Lezcano D., Nermell B., Vahter M. Exposure to inorganic arsenic metabolites during early human development. Toxicol Sci. 1998 Aug;44(2):185–190. doi: 10.1006/toxs.1998.2486. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cuzick J. A Wilcoxon-type test for trend. Stat Med. 1985 Jan-Mar;4(1):87–90. doi: 10.1002/sim.4780040112. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Del Razo L. M., Styblo M., Cullen W. R., Thomas D. J. Determination of trivalent methylated arsenicals in biological matrices. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2001 Aug 1;174(3):282–293. doi: 10.1006/taap.2001.9226. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Hopenhayn-Rich C., Biggs M. L., Kalman D. A., Moore L. E., Smith A. H. Arsenic methylation patterns before and after changing from high to lower concentrations of arsenic in drinking water. Environ Health Perspect. 1996 Nov;104(11):1200–1207. doi: 10.1289/ehp.961041200. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hopenhayn-Rich C., Biggs M. L., Smith A. H., Kalman D. A., Moore L. E. Methylation study of a population environmentally exposed to arsenic in drinking water. Environ Health Perspect. 1996 Jun;104(6):620–628. doi: 10.1289/ehp.96104620. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hopenhayn-Rich C., Browning S. R., Hertz-Picciotto I., Ferreccio C., Peralta C., Gibb H. Chronic arsenic exposure and risk of infant mortality in two areas of Chile. Environ Health Perspect. 2000 Jul;108(7):667–673. doi: 10.1289/ehp.00108667. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hsueh Y. M., Huang Y. L., Huang C. C., Wu W. L., Chen H. M., Yang M. H., Lue L. C., Chen C. J. Urinary levels of inorganic and organic arsenic metabolites among residents in an arseniasis-hyperendemic area in Taiwan. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 1998 Jul 24;54(6):431–444. doi: 10.1080/009841098158728. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Kalman D. A., Hughes J., van Belle G., Burbacher T., Bolgiano D., Coble K., Mottet N. K., Polissar L. The effect of variable environmental arsenic contamination on urinary concentrations of arsenic species. Environ Health Perspect. 1990 Nov;89:145–151. doi: 10.1289/ehp.9089145. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Kurttio P., Komulainen H., Hakala E., Kahelin H., Pekkanen J. Urinary excretion of arsenic species after exposure to arsenic present in drinking water. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol. 1998 Apr;34(3):297–305. doi: 10.1007/s002449900321. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Le X. C., Ma M., Cullen W. R., Aposhian H. V., Lu X., Zheng B. Determination of monomethylarsonous acid, a key arsenic methylation intermediate, in human urine. Environ Health Perspect. 2000 Nov;108(11):1015–1018. doi: 10.1289/ehp.001081015. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Paik M. K., Lee K. H., Hson S. S., Park I. M., Hong J. H., Hwang B. D. Human placental protein methylase--I. Purification and characterization. Int J Biochem. 1991;23(9):939–945. doi: 10.1016/0020-711x(91)90083-y. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Styblo M., Del Razo L. M., Vega L., Germolec D. R., LeCluyse E. L., Hamilton G. A., Reed W., Wang C., Cullen W. R., Thomas D. J. Comparative toxicity of trivalent and pentavalent inorganic and methylated arsenicals in rat and human cells. Arch Toxicol. 2000 Aug;74(6):289–299. doi: 10.1007/s002040000134. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Stýblo Miroslav, Drobná Zuzana, Jaspers Ilona, Lin Shan, Thomas David J. The role of biomethylation in toxicity and carcinogenicity of arsenic: a research update. Environ Health Perspect. 2002 Oct;110 (Suppl 5):767–771. doi: 10.1289/ehp.110-1241242. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Vahter M., Concha G., Nermell B., Nilsson R., Dulout F., Natarajan A. T. A unique metabolism of inorganic arsenic in native Andean women. Eur J Pharmacol. 1995 Dec 7;293(4):455–462. doi: 10.1016/0926-6917(95)90066-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Vahter M., Concha G. Role of metabolism in arsenic toxicity. Pharmacol Toxicol. 2001 Jul;89(1):1–5. doi: 10.1034/j.1600-0773.2001.d01-128.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Environmental Health Perspectives are provided here courtesy of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

RESOURCES