Vascular dysfunction in patients with chronic arsenosis can be reversed by reduction of arsenic exposure

Abstract

Chronic arsenic exposure causes vascular diseases associated with systematic dysfunction of endogenous nitric oxide. Replacement of heavily arsenic-contaminated drinking water with low-arsenic water is a potential intervention strategy for arsenosis, although the reversibility of arsenic intoxication has not established. In the present study, we examined urinary excretion of cyclic guanosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cGMP), a second messenger of the vasoactive effects of nitric oxide, and signs and symptoms for peripheral vascular function in 54 arsenosis patients before and after they were supplied with low-arsenic drinking water in an endemic area of chronic arsenic poisoning in Inner Mongolia, China. The arsenosis patients showed a marked decrease in urinary excretion of cGMP (mean ± SEM: male, 37.0 ± 6.1; female, 37.2 ± 5.4 nmol/mmol creatinine), and a 13-month period of consuming low-arsenic drinking water reversed this trend (male, 68.0 ± 5.6; female, 70.6 ± 3.0 nmol/mmol creatinine) and improved peripheral vascular response to cold stress. Our intervention study indicates that peripheral vascular disease in arsenosis patients can be reversed by exposure cessation and has important implications for the public health approach to arsenic exposure.