ArticleEnvironmental health : a global access science source2004
Mercury exposure, malaria, and serum antinuclear/antinucleolar antibodies in Amazon populations in Brazil: a cross-sectional study.
Article in Environmental health : a global access science source, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 121 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mercury Exposure and Heart Rate Variability: a Systematic Review.Current environmental health reports · 2015Pooled it
- Heavy metals and prevalence of sexually transmitted infections: a cross-sectional study using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2016.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Early-life mercury exposure and allergic diseases in childhood: systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Review
- The Aging Gut-Brain Axis: Effects of Dietary Polyphenols and Metal Exposure.Chronic diseases and translational medicine · 2025Review
- A cross-sectional study assessing mercury exposure and poisoning among workers in informal gold mines in French Guiana.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Lupus and other autoimmune diseases: Epidemiology in the population of African ancestry and diagnostic and management challenges in Africa.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. Global · 2024Review
- Health conditions of Hitnü indigenous people potentially exposed to crude oil in Arauca, ColombiaBiomedica : revista del Instituto Nacional de Salud · 2022Article
- Selenium and mercury concentrations in biological samples from patients with COVID-19.Journal of trace elements in medicine and biology : organ of the Society for Minerals and Trace Elements (GMS) · 2022Article
- Fish consumption habits of pregnant women in Itaituba, Tapajós River basin, Brazil: risks of mercury contamination as assessed by measuring total mercury in highly consumed piscivore fish species and in hair of pregnant women.Arhiv za higijenu rada i toksikologiju · 2022Article
- Transdisciplinary Online Health Assessment of an Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining Community during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Health Impact Assessment of Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining Area in Myanmar, Mandalay Region: Preliminary Research.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Methylmercury and long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are associated with immune dysregulation in young adults from the Seychelles child development study.Environmental research · 2020Article
- Mercury-induced inflammation and autoimmunity.Biochimica et biophysica acta. General subjects · 2019Review
- The Clinical Importance of the Mercury Problem in Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining.Frontiers in public health · 2019Review
- Mercury Is Taken Up Selectively by Cells Involved in Joint, Bone, and Connective Tissue Disorders.Frontiers in medicine · 2019Article
- The Putative Role of Environmental Mercury in the Pathogenesis and Pathophysiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders and Subtypes.Molecular neurobiology · 2018Review
- Repeated Exposition to Mercury (II) Chloride Enhances Susceptibility toJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
- Modulators of mercury risk to wildlife and humans in the context of rapid global change.Ambio · 2018Article
- Mercury alters endogenous phosphorylation profiles of SYK in murine B cells.BMC immunology · 2017Article
- Mining and Environmental Health Disparities in Native American Communities.Current environmental health reports · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMercury is an immunotoxic metal that induces autoimmune disease in rodents. Highly susceptible mouse strains such as SJL/N, A.SW, B10.S (H-2s) develop multiple autoimmune manifestations after exposure to inorganic mercury, including lymphoproliferation, elevated levels of autoantibodies, overproduction of IgG and IgE, and circulating immune complexes in kidney and vasculature. A few studies have examined relationships between mercury exposures and adverse immunological reactions in humans, but there is little evidence of mercury-associated autoimmunity in humans.
methodsTo test the immunotoxic effects of mercury in humans, we studied communities in Amazonian Brazil with well-characterized exposures to mercury. Information was collected on diet, mercury exposures, demographic data, and medical history. Antinuclear and antinucleolar autoantibodies (ANA and ANoA) were measured by indirect immunofluorescence. Anti-fibrillarin autoantibodies (AFA) were measured by immunoblotting.
resultsIn a gold mining site, there was a high prevalence of ANA and ANoA: 40.8% with detectable ANoA at > or =1:10 serum dilution, and 54.1% with detectable ANA (of which 15% had also detectable ANoA). In a riverine town, where the population is exposed to methylmercury by fish consumption, both prevalence and levels of autoantibodies were lower: 18% with detectable ANoA and 10.7% with detectable ANA. In a reference site with lower mercury exposures, both prevalence and levels of autoantibodies were much lower: only 2.0% detectable ANoA, and only 7.1% with detectable ANA. In the gold mining population, we also examined serum for AFA in those subjects with detectable ANoA (> or =1:10). There was no evidence for mercury induction of this autoantibody.
conclusionsThis is the first study to report immunologic changes, indicative of autoimmune dysfunction in persons exposed to mercury, which may also reflect interactions with infectious disease and other factors.
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