ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1540357
Association between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons exposure and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease in U.S. adults
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
- 2Qingdao Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Qingdao Institute of Prevention Medicine, Qingdao, China
- 3Chengdu Xindu District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chengdu, China
- 4Linyi People's Hospital, Linyi, China
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Objective: To investigate the individual or combined effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in U.S. adults.Methods: We enrolled 3130 participants aged 20 and over from the 2007-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and analyzed six urinary PAH metabolites. The Poisson regression, Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR), and weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression models were used to assess the associations between PAHs and MASLD.Results: After adjusting for covariates, Poisson regression model showed significant associations [RRs (95% CIs)] between higher exposure quartiles of 2-hydroxynaphthalene (2-NAP) [Q2: 1.35 (1.06, 1.73); Q3: 1.67 (1.35, 2.07); Q4: 1.62 (1.23, 2.15); P-trend < 0.001], 2-hydroxyfluorene (2-FLU) [Q3: 1.36 (1.08, 1.70); P-trend = 0.073], 1-hydroxyphenanthrene (1-PHE) [Q4: 1.35 (1.03, 1.76); P-trend = 0.009], and 1-hydroxypyrene (1-PYR) [Q3: 1.37 (1.12, 1.69); Q4: 1.33 (1.01, 1.76); P-trend = 0.025] and MASLD (P < 0.05), compared with Q1. BKMR model exhibited a positive trend between mixed PAHs and MASLD. The WQS index constructed for six PAHs was significantly related to MASLD [OR (95% CI): 1.25 (1.06, 1.49)]. Conclusion: This study suggests that exposure to PAHs, individually or in combination, may be associated with an increased risk of MASLD.
Keywords: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, BKMR, WQS, NHANES
Received: 05 Dec 2024; Accepted: 16 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Cui, Li, Zhang, Yang, Sun and Jiang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiubo Jiang, Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
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