Mercury in Hair Is Inversely Related to Disease Associated Damage in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

William Crowe, Leanne Doherty, Gene Watson, David Armstrong, Elisabeth Ball, Pamela Magee, Philip Allsopp, Aubrey Bell, J. J. Strain and Emeir McSorley
Additional contact information
William Crowe: Northern Ireland Centre for Food & Health (NICHE), University of Ulster, Coleraine BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland
Leanne Doherty: Northern Ireland Centre for Food & Health (NICHE), University of Ulster, Coleraine BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland
Gene Watson: Departments of Dentistry, Environmental Medicine, and Pharmacology and Physiology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY 14642, USA
David Armstrong: Department of Rheumatology, Altnagelvin Area Hospital, Glenshane Road, Londonderry BT47 6SB, Northern Ireland
Elisabeth Ball: Department of Rheumatology, Musgrave Park Hospital, Stockman’s Lane, Belfast BT9 7JB, Northern Ireland
Pamela Magee: Northern Ireland Centre for Food & Health (NICHE), University of Ulster, Coleraine BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland
Philip Allsopp: Northern Ireland Centre for Food & Health (NICHE), University of Ulster, Coleraine BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland
Aubrey Bell: Department of Rheumatology, Musgrave Park Hospital, Stockman’s Lane, Belfast BT9 7JB, Northern Ireland
J. J. Strain: Northern Ireland Centre for Food & Health (NICHE), University of Ulster, Coleraine BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland
Emeir McSorley: Northern Ireland Centre for Food & Health (NICHE), University of Ulster, Coleraine BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune inflammatory disease, and environmental factors are proposed to exacerbate existing symptoms. One such environmental factor is mercury. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between exposure to mercury (Hg) and disease activity and disease associated damage in Total Hg concentrations in hair and urine were measured in 52 SLE patients. Dental amalgams were quantified. Disease activity was assessed using three indexes including the British Isles Lupus Assessment Group Index (BILAG). Disease associated damage was measured using the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology SLICC/ACR Damage Index. Pearson’s correlation identified a significant negative correlation between hair Hg and BILAG ( r = ?0.323, p = 0.029) and SLICC/ACR ( r = ?0.377, p = 0.038). Multiple regression analysis identified hair Hg as a significant predictor of disease associated damage as determined by SLICC/ACR (? = ?0.366, 95% confidence interval (CI): ?1.769, ?0.155 p = 0.019). Urinary Hg was not related to disease activity or damage. Fish consumption is the primary route of MeHg exposure in humans and the inverse association of hair Hg with disease activity observed here might be explained by the anti-inflammatory effects of n-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids also found in fish.

Keywords: mercury; lupus; disease activity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/1/75/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/1/75/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2015:i:1:p:75-:d:61179

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().