Exposures to volatile organic compounds are positively correlated with risks of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease
LI Kai
ZENG Wenqian
ZHANG Yanzi
ZHU Xiuling
GUO Bing
Abstract：Objective To assess the association between urinary levels of volatile organic compound metabolites(mVOCs)and risks of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease(MASLD)in the general adult population.Methods Based on 4 cycles of cross-sectional surveys from the 2011-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(NHANES),generalized linear models were employed to evaluate the associations between individual mVOC exposures and the risk of MASLD.A two-stage Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator-Weighted Quantile Sum(LASSO-WQS)regression model was constructed to investigate the relationship between mixed mVOCs exposures and MASLD risk,and the relative contributions of the individual compounds were quantitatively analyzed.Results The single-exposure analysis revealed significant positive associations of 2-aminothiazoline-4-carboxylic acid(ATCA),N-acetyl-S-(2-carboxyethyl)-L-cysteine(CEMA),and N-acetyl-S-(3,4-dihydroxybutyl)-L-cysteine(DHBMA)with MASLD risk after adjusting for confounders.In the two-stage mixed-exposure analysis,the first-stage LASSO regression identified 6 mVOCs with stronger association with MASLD risk.The second-stage WQS regression demonstrated a statistically significant positive association between mixed mVOCs exposures and MASLD risk(OR=1.306,95%CI:1.132-1.507;P<0.001),with CEMA contributing the highest weight(36%).Conclusion The study reveals a significant positive association between urinary levels of mVOCs mixtures and MASLD risk,suggesting potential hepatotoxic effects of VOC(especially CEMA)exposures,which urges future mechanistic studies of VOC mixture-related health impacts and listing of CEMA for health risk control.
Keywords：metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver diseasevolatile organic compoundsmixed exposureweighted quantile sum regression
Publication Date：2026-01-20
Online Publishing Date：2026-01-22(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：9( 122-130 )