How polluted is your fat? What the study of adipose tissue can contribute to environmental epidemiology

Abstract

The study of the potential contribution of low-dose exposure to environmental chemicals on the development of chronic conditions in human populations is often hampered by methodological issues, including exposure misclassification and the inability to assess biological effects in target organs. White adipose tissue (WAT) presents the unique feature of being both an advantageous matrix for assessing long-term exposure to mixtures of persistent organic pollutants and an interesting tissue to investigate early preclinical effects. Moreover, other lipophilic non-persistent chemicals and heavy metals have been recently quantified in fat, suggesting that human WAT contains chemical mixtures more complex than initially thought. However, WAT has been scarcely used in environmental epidemiology due to collection difficulties. In this essay we discuss the potential of using human WAT as a source of both exposure and effect biomarkers, with the aim of advancing the epidemiological research of obesity-related diseases, including metabolic syndrome and cancer. Overall, we discuss the implications of investigating WAT in a multidisciplinary framework combining toxicological and epidemiological knowledge in order to improve the inference of causal relationships in observational settings. We finalise by suggesting feasible designs and scenarios in which WAT samples may be reasonably collected.

Bisphenols and Oxidative Stress Biomarkers—Associations Found in Human Studies, Evaluation of Methods Used, and Strengths and Weaknesses of the Biomarkers

“…The role of oxidative stress as a link between BPA exposure and specific health outcomes can be evaluated using mediation analysis as was done by Chang et al (2019) using DAG [27]. Broadly, mediation analysis estimates the potential indirect effect exerted by a mediatory variable in the causal path between a given exposure and outcome [46].…”

“…GSH is listed in 15 AOPs (3,17,31,37,46,144,148,149,205,209,220,260,293,294,296), link: https://aopwiki.org/aops?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=glutathione&commit=Search&find_by_id=, 3 KEs, link: https://aopwiki.org/events?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=glutathione&commit=Search& find_by_id=, and one other KE, link: https://aopwiki.org/events/130.…”

Metabolomics in chemical risk analysis – A review

“…These conditions do not represent the chemical risk of the actual exposure scenario. In real-life scenarios, the population is subjected to long-term exposures of low-dose chemical mixtures with different mechanisms of action, which may show non-monotonic dose responses and be liable to bioaccumulate [22].…”

“…Exposure to chemical mixtures has become a major concern because humans are continuously exposed to multiple hazards from different sources [12,23]. The effect of chemical mixtures, the somay occur although the same chemical substances do not show any effect when individually present at the same concentration level [22,24].…”

Interactions between environmental pollutants and dietary nutrients: current evidence and implications in epidemiological research

“…Optimally, such factors should be measured with adequate biomarkers depicting the true underlying exposure and/or susceptibility conditions of individuals. 59 Accurate biomonitoring of the internal chemical space is not economically and methodologically feasible nowadays; however, novel technological advances in high-resolution mass spectrometry are moving towards more efficient, comprehensive and biospecimen-based exposure assessment. 60 These advances are also favouring a transformative process in epidemiological studies, extending the specimen profiling of a few chemicals and/or nutrients to the order of hundreds and thousands, and promoting a better understanding of chemical interactions.…”