The prevalence of covalent modifications to DNA (carcinogen-DNA adducts) in 42 human urinary bladder biopsy samples was investigated by 32P-postlabeling methods, with enhancement by both nuclease P1 treatment and 1-butanol extraction. Total mean carcinogen-DNA adduct levels and the mean levels of several specific adducts were significantly elevated in DNA samples of 13 current smokers, as opposed to 9 never smokers or 20 ex-smokers (5 years abstinence). There was no significant difference between the latter two groups. Several DNA adducts enhanced by nuclease P1 treatment were chromatographically similar to putative hydrocarbon DNA adducts reported earlier for placenta and lung DNA samples obtained from cigarette smokers. Putative aromatic amine adducts were detected by 1-butanol extraction that were not present when the samples were treated with nuclease P1. One of these displayed chromatographic behavior identical to the predominant adduct induced by the human urinary bladder carcinogen, 4-aminobiphenyl, which is present in cigarette smoke. This adduct comigrated in several thin-layer chromatographic systems with a synthetic N-(deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-4-amino[2,2'-3Hlbiphenyl-3',5'-bisphosphate marker. Moreover, when this adduct was eluted from the thin-layer chromatograms of several individuals and i 'ected onto an HPLC system, the 32p from the human bladder DNA samples coeluted in the same fraction as the tritiated synthetic N-(deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-4-aminobiphenyl marker. These data reinforce an association between cigarette smoking and DNA damage and suggest a molecular basis for the initiation of human urinary bladder cancer by cigarette smoke.
The metabolic activation or inactivation of carcinogens varies considerably in human populations, and is partly genetically determined. Inter-individual variability in the susceptibility to carcinogens may be particularly important at low degrees of environmental exposure. Examples of probable human carcinogens that present widespread low-dose exposures are environmental tobacco smoke and diesel exhaust. We have determined levels of DNA adducts in bladder cells and of 4-aminobiphenyl-haemoglobin adducts in 97 volunteers, together with the N-acetylation non-inducible phenotype, the corresponding genotype, and the levels of nicotine-cotinine in the urine. We find that among the slow acetylators, 4-aminobiphenyl adducts were higher than in rapid acetylators at low or null nicotine-cotinine levels, whereas the difference between slow and rapid acetylators was less evident at increasing nicotine-cotinine levels. The N-acetyltransferase genotype is highly predictive of the acetylation phenotype. Our results indicate that the clearance of low-dose carcinogens is decreased in the genetically based slow-acetylator phenotype. Such genetic modulation of low-dose environmental risks is relevant to 'risk assessment' procedures.
Background: Maternal factors are implicated in the onset of childhood asthma. Differentiation of naïve CD4+ T lymphocytes into pro-allergic T-helper 2 cells induces interleukin (IL)4 expression and inhibits interferon (IFN)γ expression accompanied by concordant methylation changes in the promoters of these genes. However, it has yet to be established whether maternal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can alter these gene promoters epigenetically during fetal development.Objectives: In this study we sought to elucidate the relationship between maternal PAH exposure and promoter methylation status of IFNγ and IL4.Methods: We assessed the effects of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), a representative airborne PAH, on the methylation status of the IFNγ and IL4 promoters in Jurkat cells and two lung adenocarcinoma cell lines, and on gene expression. In addition, we evaluated methylation status of the IFNγ promoter in cord white blood cells from 53 participants in the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health cohort. Maternal PAH exposure was estimated by personal air monitoring during pregnancy.Results: In vitro exposure of the cell models to low, noncytotoxic doses (0.1 and 1 nM) of BaP elicited increased promoter hypermethylation and reduced expression of IFNγ, but not IL4. IFNγ promoter methylation in cord white blood cells was associated with maternal PAH exposure in the cohort study subsample.Conclusion: Consistent with the results for the cell lines, maternal exposure to PAHs was associated with hypermethylation of IFNγ in cord blood DNA from cohort children. These findings support a potential role of epigenetics in fetal reprogramming by PAH-induced environmental diseases.
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