Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are highly persistent anthropogenic chemicals increasingly linked to adverse respiratory effects via inhalation. However, direct evidence of PFASs accumulation within the human lung remains limited. In this study, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) samples were obtained from 102 patients with lung cancer (LC) and 121 patients with non-cancerous lung diseases (NCC) to investigate PFASs distribution patterns and their associations with demographic factors. Perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA) exhibited the highest detection frequency (100%) and median concentration in BALF samples from both LC and NCC patients. Short-chain PFASs were present at higher concentrations in BALF than long-chain PFASs, with perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids dominating the compositional profile for both groups. Among the major PFASs with sufficient detection frequencies for primary statistical comparison, PFHxA, perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, and perfluorooctanoic acid showed significantly lower median concentrations in LC patients than in NCC patients (p<0.05). In the NCC cohort, perfluorobutanoic acid showed an age-related difference, with higher levels in older individuals. Correlation analysis further indicated different PFASs co-occurrence patterns between the two patient groups, with relatively stronger associations among several major PFASs in the LC cohort. Overall, this study demonstrates the occurrence of multiple PFASs in human BALF and provides new observational evidence on pulmonary PFASs distribution in two lung disease cohorts, offering novel insights into direct pulmonary exposure.
Deng et al. (Thu,) studied this question.