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© 1998 Oxford University Press
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Exposure to Inorganic Arsenic Metabolites during Early Human Development
*Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute Box 210, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
Hospital San Antonio de los Cobres Salta, Argentina
Received February 19, 1998; accepted May 1, 1998
Because of the lack of data on the exposure to and toxic effects of inorganic arsenic during early human development, the transfer of arsenic to the fetus and suckling infant was studied in a native Andean population, living in the village San Antonio de los Cobres in the North west of Argentina, where the drinking water contains about 200 µg/liter. The concentration of arsenic in cord blood (median, 9 µg/liter) was almost as high as in maternal blood (median, 11 µg/liter), and there was a significant correlation between the two. Thus, at least in late gestation, arsenic is easily transferred to the fetus. The median concentration of arsenic in the placenta was 34 µg/kg, compared with 7 µg/kg previously reported for nonexposed women. Interestingly, essentially all arsenic in the blood plasma of both the newboms and their mothers was in the form of dimethylarsinic acid (DMA), the end product of inorganic arsenic metabolism. Similarly, about 90% of the arsenic in the urine of both the newboms and mothers in late gestation was present as DMA, compared with about 70% in nonpregnant women (p < 0.001). This may indicate that methylation of arsenic is increased during pregnancy and that DMA is the major form of arsenic transferred to the fetus. The increased methylation in late gestation was associated with lower arsenic concentrations in blood and higher concentrations in urine, compared with a few months postpartum. The arsenic concentrations in the urine of the infants decreased from about 80 µg/liter during the first 2 days of life to less than 30 µg/liter at 4.4 months (p = 0.025). This could be explained by the low concentrations of arsenic in the breast milk, about 3 µg/kg.
Key Words: methylation; metabolite; fetus; exposure; plasma; drinking water.
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