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Herman Autrup,¹ Bahram Daneshvar,² Lars Ove Dragsted,² Mikael Gamborg,³ Åse Marie Hansen,³ Steffen Loft,⁴ Henrik Okkels,¹ Flemming Nielsen,⁵ Per Sabro Nielsen,¹ Edith Raffn,⁶ Håkan Wallin,³ and Lisbeth Ehlert Knudsen³

¹Steno Institute of Public Health, University of Åarhus, Åarhus, Denmark
²Institute of Food Safety and Toxicology, Søborg, Denmark
³National Institute of Occupational Health, København, Denmark
⁴Institute of Public Health and Department of Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
⁵Department of Environmental Medicine, University of Odense, Odense, Denmark
⁶Department of Occupational Medicine, Hillerød County Hospital, Hillerød, Denmark

Abstract

Human exposure to genotoxic compounds present in ambient air has been studied using selected biomarkers in nonsmoking Danish bus drivers and postal workers. A large interindividual variation in biomarker levels was observed. Significantly higher levels of bulky carcinogen-DNA adducts (75.42 adducts/10⁸ nucleotides) and of 2-amino-apidic semialdehyde (AAS) in plasma proteins (56.7 pmol/mg protein) were observed in bus drivers working in the central part of Copenhagen, Denmark. In contrast, significantly higher levels of AAS in hemoglobin (55.8 pmol/mg protein) , malondialdehyde in plasma (0.96 nmol/ml plasma) , and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) -albumin adduct (3.38 fmol/µg albumin) were observed in the suburban group. The biomarker levels in postal workers were similar to the levels in suburban bus drivers. In the combined group of bus drivers and postal workers, negative correlations were observed between bulky carcinogen-DNA adduct and PAH-albumin levels (p = 0.005) , and between DNA adduct and -glutamyl semialdehyde (GGS) in hemoglobin (p = 0.11) . Highly significant correlations were found between PAH-albumin adducts and AAS in plasma (p = 0.001) and GGS in hemoglobin (p = 0.001) . Significant correlations were also observed between urinary 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2´-deoxyguanosine and AAS in plasma (p = 0.001) and PAH-albumin adducts (p = 0.002) . The influence of the glutatione S-transferase (GST) M1 deletion on the correlation between the biomarkers was studied in the combined group. A significant negative correlation was only observed between bulky carcinogen-DNA adducts and PAH-albumin adducts (p = 0.02) and between DNA adduct and urinary mutagenic activity (p = 0.02) in the GSTM1 null group, but not in the workers who were homozygotes or heterozygotes for GSTM1. Our results indicate that some of the selected biomarkers can be used to distinguish between high and low exposure to environmental genotoxins. Key words: adducts, air pollution, biomarkers, genotoxic exposure, human, oxidative stress. Environ Health Perspect 107:233-238 (1999) . [Online 9 February 1999]

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1999/107p233-238autrup/ abstract.html

Address correspondence to H. Autrup, Department of Environmental Medicine, University of Åarhus, Vennelyst Boulevard 6, Building 260, DK-8000 Århus C, Denmark.

This project was supported by a grant from the Danish Strategic Environmental Research Program to the Center for Biochemical and Occupational Epidemiology.

Received 3 June 1998 ; accepted 28 October 1998.