RESUMO
Nickel compounds have proven lung carcinogenic effects and their processing involve a large amount of population. The aim of this study was to investigate the metabolomic profiles of Exhaled Breath Condensate (EBC) of a group of nickel exposed workers. Nickel in blood, urine and EBC of 39 workers (electroplaters) and 50 controls was measured. The 10 most nickel exposed workers were chosen for the analysis of EBC metabolomic profiles, matched to controls by gender and smoke habits. All the samples were analyzed using the HPLC-MS/MS system (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry). The profiles of the spectra obtained by the mass spectrometer (Orbitrap) analysis were processed using the MZmine 2.4 software. Nickel concentrations in EBC of the exposed workers were significantly higher compared to controls (1.39 microg/L; 0.039 microg/L, p = 0.017). The observation of the metabolomic profiles pointed out a significantly different response pattern between the exposed and the controls. This result was further studied by a subsequent processing with the XCMS program: an overexpression of 3 hypothetical substances in controls compared to exposed was detected. Although these data must be considered as preliminary, it has been observed that the mass-to-charge ratio of one of these substances may respond to the Phenylacethylglutamine (PAG) one, whose role in the control of cellular cycle is controversial and uncertain. Even if further studies to confirm these results are necessary, the analysis of the metabolomic profiles in the biological matrices is supposed to provide useful information both in the clinical and in the prevention fields.