Excess heavy metals can lead to many kinds of adverse effects in human. The present study is designed to investigate whether the internal excess burden of heavy metals relate to the disturbance of the Blood-brain-barrier (BBB) and oxidative stress (OS) in subjects, and identify specific metallic constituents responsible for the disturbance. We collected the blood from recruited 122 subjects for our comparison study, 69 were living at an area near e-waste dismantling factories (exposed group), who have higher levels of heavy metals in the body; and others were in a chosen reference area (reference group), who were the general residents in city, in December 2017 in Taizhou, Zhejiang province. The analyses showed that the concentrations of altogether 4 metals, including nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), mercury (Hg) and stannum (Sn), and the triggers of BBB disruption (Apolipoprotein E4 and matrix-metalloproteinase-9), indicators of BBB (Myelin basic protein, serotonin and dopamine) and biomarkers of OS (Malondialdehyde and 8-isoprostane) were statistically significant higher in exposed group than in reference group. Moreover, they are also significantly positively correlated with each other. Among all the metals, both Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression showed Co was positive correlated with almost all biomarkers. Considering the explicit correlation between Co and BBB permeability, we speculated that high burden of Co in blood may have a connection with neurodegenerative diseases, which propose a requirement for constructing the environmental criteria for Co and might provide a potential new hint for the intervention of dementia.

过量的重金属可能对人体造成多种不良影响。本研究旨在调查重金属的内部过量负担是否与受试者的血脑屏障（BBB）和氧化应激（OS）的紊乱有关，并确定造成这种紊乱的特定金属成分。我们从招募的122名受试者中收集血液进行比较研究，其中69名居住在电子废物拆解工厂（暴露组）附近的区域，他们体内的重金属含量较高；其他人则在2017年12月位于浙江省台州市的选定参考地区（参考群体）中，他们是该市的一般居民。分析表明，总共四种金属的浓度，包括镍（Ni），钴（Co），汞（Hg）和锡（Sn），暴露组的血脑屏障破坏触发因子（载脂蛋白E4和基质金属蛋白酶-9），血脑屏障指标（髓磷脂碱性蛋白，5-羟色胺和多巴胺）和OS的生物标志物（丙二醛和8-异前列腺素）在统计学上高于参考值。组。此外，它们之间也显着正相关。在所有金属中，Pearson相关性和多元线性回归均显示Co与几乎所有生物标记均呈正相关。考虑到Co和BBB通透性之间的显着相关性，我们推测血液中Co的高负担可能与神经退行性疾病有关，这为构建Co的环境标准提出了要求，并可能为痴呆症的干预提供潜在的新提示。 。