The Relationship of Methylated Arginines with Urine Cadmium Levels

Abstract

Background: In this study, we aimed to show that methylated arginines are the predictors of non-clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular complications in metal workers exposed to Cd. Methods: The 80 Cd-exposed metal workers and 80 non-exposed workers (control) included in the study were available for measuring arginine, ADMA, SDMA, and L-NMMA levels. Results: The average urine Cd levels (CdU) found were 1.03 ± 0.8 µg/g creatinine (0.84 ± 0.65 µg/L) ranging from 0.01 to 3.00 µg/g creatinine in the control group and 5.41 ± 5.2 µg/g creatinine (4.29 ± 3.81 µg/L) ranged from 0.11 to 27.2 µg/g creatinine in metal workers. On the other hand, the median ratios of the different groups (exposed and control) were found to be 449.35 and 483.88 for arginine/ADMA and 1.28 and 1.33 SDMA/ADMA, respectively. Conclusions: The present study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between cadmium exposure and methylated arginines such as ADMA/SDMA/L-NMMA parameters which is important for the early detection atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases.