Environmental Metal Toxicity and Kidney Tubule Measures in Diverse Populations

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT There is a high burden of environmental metal exposure in the U.S. In rural communities, this is often from contamination of groundwater from mining and natural sources and use of well water for cooking and drinking. In urban settings, recent water contamination events in Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi, among other communities, have highlighted vulnerabilities to failures in water safety. Metal exposure remains disproportionately high among minoritized populations and those with lower socioeconomic status in both rural or urban settings. Across a broad panel of different metals, including arsenic, cadmium, lead, and uranium, high levels of exposure are known to damage kidney tubules. Yet, the health consequences of lower levels of metal exposure have not been elucidated, principally because sensitive markers of kidney tubule damage had been lacking. Recently, methods for assessing metal levels in biospecimens and in the water supply, have markedly progressed, including sensitive methods to detect kidney tubule damage non-invasively. Our ultimate goal is to develop a kidney monitoring panel that can detect and quantify damage to the kidney from any of the metal exposures that have