To explore the toxic effects of rare earth elements (REEs) accumulated in human body, adopting the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method, the present study measured REEs and the contents of eight other elements (Ca, Fe, Cu, Na, K, Zn, Mg, and P) in the hair of eight persons exposed to soil containing REEs for a long time as well as in the control group. In addition, proteomic analysis of serum of the two groups was conducted by isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) technique. Experimental results show that in the hair of the two groups, 15 REEs and eight other elements were detected, in which the content of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Tb, Ho, Tm, Yb, and Fe in the exposure group is significantly higher than that of the control group, but the content of Ca in the exposure group is significantly lower than that of the control group; analysis yields out 29 differentially expressed proteins, in which 16 proteins are upregulated and 13 proteins are downregulated. Bioinformatics analysis of differentially expressed proteins demonstrates that they participate in various biological processes and five Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways, forming an interaction network. Besides, some differentially expressed proteins may be related to neurovirulence, hepatotoxicity, pathological fibrosis, osteoporosis, and anticoagulation caused by REEs. The present experiment investigated the toxic effects of REEs accumulated in human body at the molecular level, which may lay a foundation for the future research of biological effect, threshold limit values, protection from exposure, and reasonable application of REEs.

BackgroundAlthough Charcot arthropathy, also known as neuropathic arthropathy, of which early diagnosis and treatment is extremely difficult, associated with other cause factor has been widely described, Charcot arthropathy caused by syringomyelia and Chiari malformation complicated with scoliosis has never been described in the literature.Case presentationA 44-year-old male was hospitalized for diagnosis and treatment due to complaining the progressively swelling and limitation of motion in his left shoulder joint for 1 year. The patient has no significant past medical history except for scoliosis 8 years prior to his presentation to our clinic; He denied any constitutional symptoms, trauma, or pain in the upper extremities at this time of presentation. Based on history, physical and auxiliary examination, following diagnoses were made: Charcot arthropathy of the left shoulder, syringomyelia, Chiari malformation and scoliosis.ConclusionOnce Charcot arthritis was found, it was mostly in advanced stage and very difficult to treat. So we recommended that if patient suffering from scoliosis visited in clinic, further examination such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and regular follow-up should be carried out, and early-stage of this devastating disease caused by syringomyelia and Chiari malformation may be diagnosed easily.

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