Vanadium exposure and kidney markers in a pediatric population: a cross-sectional study.

Rojas-Lima, Elodia; Ortega-Romero, Manolo; Aztatzi-Aguilar, Octavio Gamaliel; Rubio-Gutiérrez, Juan Carlos; Narváez-Morales, Juana; Esparza-García, Mariela; Méndez-Hernández, Pablo; Medeiros, Mara; Barbier, Olivier Christophe

Background: Anthropogenic vanadium (V) emissions and exposure in the general population have recently increased. Experimental studies have shown that V is a nephrotoxic agent, but little is known about its effects on human kidney health. This work evaluated the association between urinary V concentrations with early kidney damage biomarkers and function in a pediatric population without any disease diagnosed. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out and included 914 healthy subjects and determined urinary V concentrations, glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), albumin–creatinine ratio (ACR), and the presence of kidney injury molecule 1 (KIM-1) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) in urine. We evaluated the V effect using linear and logistic regression models adjusted by confounders. Results: Subjects found in the second and third tertiles of V showed an increase in urinary log-NGAL levels (βT2 vs. T1 = 0.39; 95% CI 0.14, 0.64, and βT3 vs. T1 = 1.04; 95% CI 0.75, 1.34) and log-KIM-1(βT2 vs. T1 = 0.25; 95% CI 0.04, 0.45 and βT3 vs. T1 = 0.39; 95% CI 0.15, 0.63); in addition, subjects in the third tertile had a positive and significant association with ACR (ORT3 vs. T1 = 1.96; 95% CI 1.29, 2.97) and increased in eGFR (βT3 vs. T1 = 3.98, 95% CI 0.39, 7.58), compared with subjects in the first tertile. Conclusions: Our study reports the effect of V on kidney markers in a healthy pediatric population. It could be related to tubulointerstitial lesions and function abnormalities.

KIDNEY disease diagnosis; CROSS-sectional method; VANADIUM compounds; ALBUMINURIA; CREATININE; RESEARCH funding; NEPHROTOXICOLOGY; LOGISTIC regression analysis; QUESTIONNAIRES; ACUTE phase proteins; TREATMENT effectiveness; EXPERIMENTAL design; MEMBRANE glycoproteins; ENVIRONMENTAL exposure; CONFIDENCE intervals; GLOMERULAR filtration rate; KIDNEYS; REGRESSION analysis; EVALUATION

Pediatric Nephrology, 2025, Vol 40, Issue 5, p1689

0931-041X

Academic Journal

10.1007/s00467-024-06561-9