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BMC Public Health. 2012; 12: 639.
Published online 2012 August 10. doi:  10.1186/1471-2458-12-639
PMCID: PMC3441389
Copyright ©2012 Das et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Arsenic exposure through drinking water increases the risk of liver and cardiovascular diseases in the population of West Bengal, India
Nandana Das,1 Somnath Paul,1 Debmita Chatterjee,1 Nilanjana Banerjee,1 Niladri S Majumder,1 Nilendu Sarma,2 Tanmoy J Sau,3 Santanu Basu,4 Saptarshi Banerjee,5 Papiya Majumder,6 Apurba K Bandyopadhyay,1 J Christopher States,7 and Ashok K Giricorresponding author1
1Molecular and Human Genetics Division, CSIR- Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, 4, Raja S. C. Mullick Road, Kolkata, 700 032, India
2Sir Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, 700 014, India
3Department of Medicine, Calcutta National Medical College, Kolkata, 700 017, West Bengal, India
4Department of General Medicine, Sri Aurobindo Seva Kendra, Kolkata, 700068, West Bengal, India
5Regional Institute of Opthalmology, Calcutta Medical College, Kolkata, 700073, West Bengal, India
6Tata Main Hospital, Jamshedpur, 831001, Jharkhand, India
7Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 40209, USA
corresponding authorCorresponding author.
Nandana Das: das.nandana.23/at/gmail.com; Somnath Paul: somnath4you/at/gmail.com; Debmita Chatterjee: debmita.c/at/gmail.com; Nilanjana Banerjee: 2006.nilanjana/at/gmail.com; Niladri S Majumder: niladri_01/at/rediffmail.com; Nilendu Sarma: nilendusarma/at/gmail.com; Tanmoy J Sau: drtjsau/at/gmail.com; Santanu Basu: drsantanu1972/at/yahoo.co.in; Saptarshi Banerjee: drsapta/at/gmail.com; Papiya Majumder: pmdak1/at/yahoo.co.in; Apurba K Bandyopadhyay: dr_apurba/at/yahoo.co.in; J Christopher States: jcstat01/at/louisville.edu; Ashok K Giri: akgiri15/at/yahoo.com
Received April 2, 2012; Accepted July 24, 2012.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background
Arsenic is a natural drinking water contaminant affecting 26 million people in West Bengal, India. Chronic arsenic exposure causes cancer, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, neuropathies and ocular diseases. The aims of the present study were to assess bioindicators of hepatocellular injury as indicated by the levels of liver enzymes, to determine the auto immune status, as indicated by the amounts of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) and anti-dsDNA antibodies in their serum, and to predict cardiovascular risk in the arsenic exposed population.
Methods
Effect of chronic arsenic exposure on liver was determined by liver function tests. Autoimmune status was measured by measuring ANA and anti-dsDNA in serum. Inflammatory cytokines associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk, IL6, IL8 and MCP-1 were determined.
Results
Our results indicated that serum levels of bilirubin, alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, alkaline phosphatase and ANA were increased in the arsenic exposed population. Serum levels of IL6 and IL8 also increased in the arsenic exposed group.
Conclusions
Chronic arsenic exposure causes liver injury, increases the serum levels of autoimmune markers and imparts increased cardiovascular risk.
Keywords: Arsenic, Antinuclear antibody, Liver function tests, Cytokines
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