New findings on the risk of hypertension from organophosphorus exposure under different glycemic statuses: The key role of lipids?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Considering the widespread use of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) and the global prevalence of hypertension (HTN), as well as studies indicating that different glycemic statuses may respond differently to the biological effects of OPs. Therefore, this study, based on the Henan rural cohort, aims to investigate the association between OPs exposure and HTN, and further explores whether lipids mediate these associations.

METHODS: We measured the plasma levels of OPs in 2730 participants under different glycemic statuses using gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). A generalized linear model, Quantile g-computation (QGC), adaptive elastic net (AENET), and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models were used to assess the impact of OPs exposure on HTN, with least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) penalty regression identifying main OPs. Mediation models were used to evaluate the intermediary role of blood lipids in the OPs-HTN relationship.

RESULTS: The detection rates for all OPs were high, ranging from 76.35 % to 99.17 %. In the normal glucose tolerance (NGT) population, single exposure models indicated that malathion and phenthoate were associated with an increased incidence of HTN (P-FDR < 0.05), with corresponding odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) of 1.624 (1.167,2.260) and 1.290 (1.072,1.553), respectively. QGC demonstrated a positive association between OP mixtures and HTN, with malathion and phenthoate being the primary contributors. Additionally, the AENET model's Exposure Response Score (ERS) suggested that the risk of HTN increases with higher ERS (P < 0.001). Furthermore, BKMR revealed that co-exposure to OPs increases HTN risk, with phenthoate having a significant impact. Furthermore, triglycerides (TG) mediated 6.55 % of the association between phenthoate and HTN. However, no association was observed in the impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) populations.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that in the NGT population, OPs may significantly contribute to the development of HTN, proposing TG as a potential novel target for HTN prevention.