The Effect of Chelation on Bone pb Stores in Pb Poisoned Children.

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 2025, v. 35, no. 5: The Effect of Chelation on Bone pb Stores in Pb Poisoned Children.
• Journal Article:
  Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology
• Personal Author:
  Specht, Aaron J. ; Lin, Yanfen ; Xu, Jian ; Dickerson, Aisha S. ; Yan, Chonghuai ; Hu, Howard ; Weisskopf, Marc G. ; Nie, Linda H.
• Description:
  Lead exposure remains a key problem for children during development. One treatment for lead poisoning is chelation - a topic that remains controversial with varied results. Bone lead serves as a marker of total body burden of lead and encompasses between 60-90% of lead storage in children.
  
  In this study, we aimed to identify the change in bone lead as a result of chelation therapy in a group of lead poisoned children (blood lead >25 µg/dL).
  
  Upon diagnosis with lead poisoning at Xinhua Hospital in Shanghai, China, children were recruited to our study, had their bone lead levels measured, and underwent one-week of intravenous, in-patient ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid chelation treatment. Up to three clinical visits with the same treatment protocol and bone lead measurements were completed over the two-year study. We measured biomarkers of lead exposure for children exposed via various potential sources, including home contaminants, local industrial emissions, traditional medicines, or lead cookware.
  
  We observed significant differences with bone lead after chelation therapy (p < 0.0001), even after calculating a conservative model for theoretical decay from known bone turnover (p = 0.01). The difference identified between our observed change in bone lead and literature established bone lead change significantly increased with more chelation treatments. A significant reduction in bone lead was observed following chelation treatment of children with lead poisoning - a difference that increased more with more chelation.
  
  Study results indicate that chelation treatment is effective in reducing bone lead stores in children with initial blood lead levels greater than 25 µg/dL.
  
  Lead exposure in children is a consistent problem - drastically impacting health across the life span. After exposure, lead stores in the bone of children serving as a potential endogenous source of exposure for years to decades. Our study demonstrated that chelation therapy, while reducing blood lead levels, additionally reduced bone lead levels. A reduction in bone lead would effectively reduce the potential for endogenous release of lead and restrict the damage done by lead exposure.
• Content Notes:
  Author manuscript
• Subjects:
  • Humans
  • Lead Poisoning
  • Lead
  • Child, Preschool
  • Female
  • Bone and Bones
  • Male
  • Chelating Agents
  • Child
  • Chelation Therapy
  More +
• Source:
  Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 2025, v. 35, no. 5
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-024-00735-1
• ISSN:
  1559-0631 ; 1559-064X
• Pubmed ID:
  39627471
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC12368868
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  K01 ES032046/ES/NIEHS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; K01 OH012528/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; P30 ES000002/ES/NIEHS NIH HHSUnited States/
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  China
• Pages in Document:
  709-714 (19 pdf pages)
• Volume:
  35
• Issue:
  5
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/261890/cdc_261890_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 724.62 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:484ad77c36a2cc80a38fa094441c260a1af47706bc77c27e1e5c0946ae5afceb463cbf702c20771d318dca2ccff802529f331753805f129ba0f184482f707b27