Evaluation of the use of human hair for biomonitoring the deficiency of essential and exposure to toxic elements

Monitoring the nutritional status of essential elements and assessing exposure of individuals to toxic elements is of great importance for human health. Thus, the appropriate selection and measurement of biomarkers of internal dose is of critical importance. Due to their many advantages, hair samples have been widely used to assess human exposure to different contaminants. However, the validity of this biomarker in evaluating the level of trace elements in the human body is debatable. In the present study, we evaluated the relationship between levels of trace elements in hair and whole blood or plasma in a Brazilian population. Hair, blood and plasma were collected from 280 adult volunteers for metal determination. An ICP-MS was used for sample analysis. Manganese, copper, lead and strontium levels in blood varied from 5.1 to 14.7, from 494.8 to 2383.8, from 5.9 to 330.1 and from 11.6 to 87.3 μg/L, respectively. Corresponding levels in hair varied from 0.05 to 6.71, from 0.02 to 37.59, from 0.02 to 30.63 and from 0.9 to 12.6 μg/g. Trace element levels in plasma varied from 0.07 to 8.62, from 118.2 to 1577.7 and from 2.31 to 34.2 μg/L for Mn, Cu and Sr, respectively. There was a weak correlation ( r = 0.22, p < 0.001) between lead levels in hair and blood. Moreover, copper and strontium levels in blood correlate with those levels in plasma ( r = 0.64 , p < 0.001 for Cu) and ( r = 0.22, p < 0.05 for Sr). However, for Cu, Mn and Sr there was no correlation between levels in hair and blood. Our findings suggest that while the idea of measuring trace elements in hair is attractive, hair is not an appropriate biomarker for evaluating Cu, Mn and Sr deficiency or Pb exposure.