An Study On The Effect Of Lead-cadmium-arsenic Mixture In Immunological Function

[Objective] To study the effect of immunological function in the population exposed to the lead-cadmium-arsenic mixture in the lead-zinc mining area in Xiang hua-ling, Shi zhu-yuan and Huang sha-ping in the city of Chen Zhou, reveal the correlation between some immunological indices and lead-cadmium-arsenic mixture, search of the sensitive indices of the damage of the metal toxicants in the population, and appraise the possibility that these immunological indices have application in environment and diseases supervisions.[Methods] The workers which had worked above 5 years in the lead-zinc mining area in Xiang hua-ling,Shi zhu-yuan or Huang sha-ping and the inhabitants which had reside in mining area above 5 years were choosed as the research subjects, and the inhabitants which were apart far from and had no-connection by water system with the pollution source,had not endured the industrial pollutions,but had homological life habits and socioeconomic status, and had never exposed to the heavy metal toxicants were choosed as the contrast group. Research in the three population to random sampling, and get the samples.The contents of the lead,cadmium and arsenic in blood and urine in the three population were examined by atomic absorption spectrophotometric method. Serum immunoglobulin contents(IgG,IgA,IgM) were analysed with immunodiffusion method. The human body peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets were assayed with specific monoclonal antibody method. The hytohemagglutin nonspecific were used to stimulate the human body peripheral blood T lymphocyte and obtaine the lymphocyte transformation rate. The contents of the lead,cadmium,arsenic in blood and urine, and the contents of the immunological indices were compared between the different population, and analysed the correlation between the immunological indices and the contents of the metal in human body.[Results] The contents of the lead,cadmium,arsenic in blood and urine in the miner workers,mining area-inhabitants and the contrast group were significantly different, and the pairwise comparison among groups also were significantly different. The contents of the lead,cadmium,arsenic in blood and urine in the miner workers were the highest, and the contents of the three toxicants in the contrast group were the lowest. The differences had significance in statistics (P<0.001) .The measuring result of the immunological indices revealed that all of the immunological indices were significantly different in the groups. The serum immunoglobulin contents and the lymphocyte transformation rate of the miner workers were the lowest, but those of the contrast group were the highest in the group; Human body peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets indicated that the percentage of the CD4+ T lymphocyte and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ T lymphocyte of the miner workers were the lowest, but those of the contrast group were the highest, and the percentage of the CD8+ T lymphocyte in the contrast group were the lowest, but that of the miner workers were the highest in the groups. The differences between the groups had significance in statistics (P<0.001) .The result of the correlation analysis of the immunological indices and the contents of the lead,cadmium,arsenic in blood and urine in different population showed that the contents of the three toxicants in blood and urine negatively correlated with the serum immunoglobulin contents, the lymphocyte transformation rate, the percentage of the CD4+ T lymphocyte and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ T lymphocyte, but positively correlated with the percentage of the CD8+ T lymphocyte. These correlation had significance in statistics (P<0.01) .[Conclusion]â‘ The contents of the lead,cadmium and arsenic in blood and urine of the workers which worked in the lead-zinc mining area in Xiang hua-ling,Shi zhu-yuan and Huang sha-ping in the city of Chen Zhou, and the inhabitants which resided in mining area had significant increased to compare with contrast group, and reflected that the workers and inhabitants had exposed to the three toxicants in working and life; (2) The immunologic function of the miners and mining area inhabitants had been damaged; (3) The contents of the lead,cadmium,arsenic in blood and urine in the research subjects correlated with the multiple immunological indices. So by early analyzing these immunological indices, we could detect the damage of lead-cadmium-arsenic mixture to the population exposed to them in earlier period, and more efficiently control the serious consequences caused by the metal toxicants.