Metabolomics Analysis of Chronic Exposure to Dimethylarsenic Acid in Mice and Toxicity Assessment of Organic Arsenic in Food

Abstract

Dimethylarsenic acid is a natural organic arsenic in seafood and one of the important metabolites of inorganic arsenic, which is generally considered to have low or no toxicity. However, due to the controversy of the toxicity of organic arsenic, the food safety standard of organic arsenic has not been established until now, and the effects of organic arsenic on chronic toxicity and the overall metabolic level of animals are rarely reported. In our study, 64 female C57BL/6 mice were exposed to different concentrations of dimethylarsenic acid with water intake. Fifteen metabolites in serum were detected to be altered with the increase of arsenic concentration and exposure time. Dimethylarsenic acid exposure significantly affected the overall metabolic level of mice, and the related effects were not recovered shortly after the suspension of arsenic intake. Although arsenic was excreted largely in urine and feces, continued dimethylarsenic acid exposure could still lead to arsenic accumulation in the liver and kidneys and cause mild nephritis in mice.

Review on analytical technologies and applications in metabolomics

“…Such analysis starts with the comparison of a metabolic profile of a known reference chemical with its toxicological profile in vivo. This allows for the generation of a 'toxicity pattern,' which defines the metabolic profile related to a distinct toxicological endpoint [168,173,174]. Afterwards, the degree of overlap is calculated by aligning the metabolic profile of the unknown chemical with the toxicity pattern.…”