Relationships of lead exposure with blood pressure and blood lead with inflammation have been previously established yet, but the conclusions are still controversial. The objective of our study was to investigate the role of systemic inflammation in the relationships between blood lead concentration and blood pressure. We quantified the levels of blood lead and white blood cell count in 505 lead-exposed workers with 842 observations. Associations between blood lead, white blood cell count, and blood pressure were evaluated by using linear mixed models. We further performed mediation analysis to investigate the role of white blood cell count in the associations between blood lead concentration and blood pressure. We observed that each 1% increase of blood lead levels was significantly positively associated with a 0.9%, 1.7%, and 1.1% increases in systolic blood pressure, white blood cell count, and blood platelet count, respectively. Also, we found that the levels of white blood cell count were positively correlated with diastolic blood pressure and systolic blood pressure in a dose-response manner. Mediation analysis showed that the levels of white blood cell significantly mediated the associations between concentration of blood lead and systolic blood pressure. Collectively, our findings suggest that blood lead was positively associated with systolic blood pressure and that systemic inflammation might play a key role in this association.

中文翻译：

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血铅、全身炎症和血压：探索接触铅的工人的关联和中介作用。

铅暴露与血压和血铅与炎症的关系以前已经确定，但结论仍然存在争议。我们研究的目的是调查全身炎症在血铅浓度和血压之间的关系中的作用。我们通过 842 次观察量化了 505 名接触铅的工人的血铅和白细胞计数水平。通过使用线性混合模型评估血铅、白细胞计数和血压之间的关联。我们进一步进行了中介分析，以研究白细胞计数在血铅浓度和血压之间的关联中的作用。我们观察到血铅水平每增加 1% 与 0.9%、1.7% 和 1 显着正相关。收缩压、白细胞计数和血小板计数分别增加 1%。此外，我们发现白细胞计数水平以剂量反应方式与舒张压和收缩压呈正相关。中介分析表明，白细胞水平显着介导了血铅浓度与收缩压之间的关联。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，血铅与收缩压呈正相关，全身炎症可能在这种关联中起关键作用。我们发现白细胞计数水平与舒张压和收缩压呈剂量反应正相关。中介分析表明，白细胞水平显着介导了血铅浓度与收缩压之间的关联。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，血铅与收缩压呈正相关，全身炎症可能在这种关联中起关键作用。我们发现白细胞计数水平与舒张压和收缩压呈剂量反应正相关。中介分析表明，白细胞水平显着介导了血铅浓度与收缩压之间的关联。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，血铅与收缩压呈正相关，全身炎症可能在这种关联中起关键作用。