Zaiyang Long1,
2, Yue-Ming Jiang3, Xiang-Rong Li4, Jun Xu1,
2, Li-Ling Long4, Wei Zheng1, James B. Murdoch5,
Ulrike Dydak1, 2
1School
of Health Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States; 2Department
of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine,
Indianapolis, IN, United States; 3Dept. of Occupational Health and
Toxicology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China; 4Department
of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University,
Nanning, Guangxi, China; 5Toshiba Medical Research Institute USA,
Mayfair village, OH, United States
The aim of this study was to compare metabolite changes of welders and smelters following occupational manganese (Mn) exposure. Nine smelters, 14 welders and 23 controls were recruited. Short echo-time 1H spectra were acquired from frontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), hippocampus, and thalamus. Welders, with lower airborne Mn exposure, showed significantly decreased creatine (Cr) and glutamate (Glu) in the frontal cortex, and decreased myo-inositol (mI) in the PCC and in the hippocampus. Smelters showed decreased mI in the PCC and hippocampus, and increased Glu in the thalamus. Mn-induced brain metabolite changes seem regional and more extensive in welders.