Coke Oven Worker Biomarkers for Co-Exposure to Metals and PAHs

A study of 867 coke oven workers measured 33 urinary and blood chemical pollutants, mitochondrial DNA copy number, and leukocyte telomere length at baseline and follow-up. The research, authored by Min Mu and published on figshare in 2026, evaluated combined effects using weighted quantum sum regression and Bayesian kernel machine regression. It identified urinary 1-hydroxypyrene, molybdenum, selenium, and barium as major contributors to associations with aging biomarkers.

Use Cases

• Modeling joint effects of chemical mixtures on aging biomarkers using weighted quantum sum (WQS) regression based on the 33 measured pollutants.
• Identifying key pollutant contributors to biological aging via least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression based on the exposure panel.
• Exploring nonlinear dose-response relationships between individual pollutants and biomarkers using restricted cubic splines as described.
• Investigating mediation pathways linking chemical exposure to aging through oxidative stress and inflammation markers mentioned in the study.
• Validating network toxicology predictions, such as the role of HSP90AA1 and HSP90AB1 targets in selenium's effect on telomere regulation.

Strengths

• Includes data from 867 participants, a substantial sample size for an occupational cohort study.
• Measures 33 distinct chemical pollutants, providing a multi-exposure profile.
• Contains longitudinal data for leukocyte telomere length, with measurements at baseline and follow-up.
• Applies multiple advanced statistical methods (WQS, BKMR, LASSO, mediation analysis) for a thorough investigation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic and occupational bias inherent to the single cohort of coke oven workers.

Provenance

Source

Min Mu via figshare

Collection Method

Biological samples (urine and blood) collected from coke oven workers and analyzed for pollutants and biomarkers.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-28 06:26:24; freshness should be verified.