Skip Navigation
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document
Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document

Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Iron metabolism genes, low-level lead exposure, and QT interval.

Authors: Park, Sung Kyun; Hu, Howard; Wright, Robert O; Schwartz, Joel; Cheng, Yawen; Sparrow, David; Vokonas, Pantel S; Weisskopf, Marc G

Published In Environ Health Perspect, (2009 Jan)

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Cumulative exposure to lead has been shown to be associated with depression of electrocardiographic conduction, such as QT interval (time from start of the Q wave to end of the T wave). Because iron can enhance the oxidative effects of lead, we examined whether polymorphisms in iron metabolism genes [hemochromatosis (HFE), transferrin (TF) C2, and heme oxygenase-1 (HMOX-1)] increase susceptibility to the effects of lead on QT interval in 613 community-dwelling older men. METHODS: We used standard 12-lead electrocardiograms, K-shell X-ray fluorescence, and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry to measure QT interval, bone lead, and blood lead levels, respectively. RESULTS: A one-interquartile-range increase in tibia lead level (13 mug/g) was associated with a 11.35-msec [95% confidence interval (CI), 4.05-18.65 msec] and a 6.81-msec (95% CI, 1.67-11.95 msec) increase in the heart-rate-corrected QT interval among persons carrying long HMOX-1 alleles and at least one copy of an HFE variant, respectively, but had no effect in persons with short and middle HMOX-1 alleles and the wild-type HFE genotype. The lengthening of the heart-rate-corrected QT interval with higher tibia lead and blood lead became more pronounced as the total number (0 vs. 1 vs. >/=2) of gene variants increased (tibia, p-trend = 0.01; blood, p-trend = 0.04). This synergy seems to be driven by a joint effect between HFE variant and HMOX-1 L alleles. CONCLUSION: We found evidence that gene variants related to iron metabolism increase the impacts of low-level lead exposure on the prolonged QT interval. This is the first such report, so these results should be interpreted cautiously and need to be independently verified.

PubMed ID: 19165391 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: No MeSH terms associated with this publication

Back
to Top