Introduction Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are the products formed by physical adhesion of serum glucose to some serum macromolecules such as proteins or nucleotides after a series of chemical reactions. Based on past studies, AGEs are associated with many diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases such as T2DM and atherosclerosis. Therefore, we conducted a study to explore the association between metal concentration in human body and serum AGEs.

Methods This study is a cross-sectional design, and its study population is composed of 283 workers exposed to metal in northern Taiwan. We used questionnaires to obtain the basic demographic data of the workers. Also, we collected the blood and urine samples from the workers, and we used appropriate methods to analyse the serum and urine samples including the concentration of metal, markers about metabolic diseases and serum advanced glycation end-products. We performed statistical methods containing mainly multivariable regression to analyse the data.

Result According to the study results, we found the serum nickel (Ni), serum lead (Pb), and serum thallium (Tl) are statistically crucial to the dependent variable serum AGEs concentration even after adjusting the possible covariates comprising age, gender, HbA1C, total cholesterol, BMI, diet habits, the smoking habit, medical history of hypertension, medical history of coronary artery disease and medical history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The regression coefficients B for Ni, Pb, and Tl are 0.15 (95% CI: 0.06~0.24; p<0.001), 0.17 (95% CI: 0.10~0.24; p<0.001), and 0.20 (95% CI: 0.02~0.38; p<0.05) respectively. Besides, we acquired significant positive associations between serum AGEs concentration and any of the Framingham risk score.

Discussion According to our research findings, we suggested the positive association between serum Ni, Pb and Tl levels with serum AGEs concentration. Furthermore, the workers with higher serum Ni, Pb and Tl levels might increase 10 year risk of cardiovascular disease via the pathogenic processes of AGEs.