The Bhopal gas tragedy involving methyl isocyanate (MIC) is one of the most horrific industrial accidents in recent decades. We investigated the genotoxic effects of MIC in long-term survivors and their offspring born after the 1984 occurrence. There are a few cytogenetic reports showing genetic damage in the MIC-exposed survivors, but there is no information about the associated cancer risk. The same is true about offspring. For the first time, we here assessed the micronucleus (MN) frequency using cytokinesis-blocked micronucleus (CBMN) assay to predict cancer risk in the MIC-affected population of Bhopal. A total of 92 healthy volunteers (46 MICaffected and 46 controls) from Bhopal and various regions of India were studied taking gender and age into consideration. Binucleated lymphocytes with micronuclei (BNMN), total number of micronuclei in lymphocytes (MNL), and nuclear division index (NDI) frequencies and their relationship to age, gender and several lifestyle variabilities (smoking, alcohol consumption and tobacco-chewing) were investigated. Our observations showed relatively higher BNMN and MNL (P<0.05) in the MIC-affected than in the controls. Exposed females (EF) exhibited significantly higher BNMN and MNL (P<0.01) than their unexposed counterparts. Similarly, female offspring of the exposed (FOE) also suffered higher BNMN and MNL (P<0.05) than in controls. A significant reduction in NDI (P<0.05) was found only in EF. The affected group of non-smokers and non-alcoholics featured a higher frequency of BNMN and MNL than the control group of non-smokers and non-alcoholics (P<0.01). Similarly, the affected group of tobacco chewers showed significantly higher BNMN and MNL (P<0.001) than the non-chewers. Amongst the affected, smoking and alcohol consumption were not associated with statistically significant differences in BNMN, MNL and NDI. Nevertheless, tobacco-chewing had a preponderant effect with respect to MNL. A reasonable correlation between MNL and lifestyle habits (smoking, alcohol consumption and tobacco-chewing) was observed only in the controls. Our results suggest that EF and FOE are more susceptible to cancer development, as compared to EM and MOE. The genotoxic outcome detected in FOE reflects their parental exposure to MIC. Briefly, the observed cytogenetic damage to the MIC-affected could contribute to cancer risk, especially in the EF and FOE.

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Ambiguous Genitalia, a rare genetic disorder is caused by defects in the process of fetal sexual determination and differentiation where a newborn needs prompt evaluation to detect lethal conditions and gender assignment. This genetic screening is taken up with an aim to evaluate the prevalence of the patients born with Ambiguous Genitalia existing in our population.

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Background: The glutathione S transferase (GST) family of enzymes plays a vital role in the phase II biotransformation of environmental carcinogens, pollutants, drugs and other xenobiotics. GSTs are polymorphic and polymorphisms in GST genes have been associated with cancer susceptibility and prognosis. GSTP1 is associated with risk of various cancers including bladder cancer. A case control study was conducted to determine the genotype distribution of GSTP1 A>G SNP, to elucidate the possible role of this SNP as a risk factor in urinary bladder cancer (UBC) development and to examine its correlation with clinico-pathologic variables inUBC cases. Materials and Methods: Using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) approach, we tested the genotype distribution of 180 bladder cancer patients in comparison with 210 cancer-free controls from the same geographical region with matched frequency in age and gender. Results: We did not observe significant genotype differences between the control and bladder cancer patients overall with an odds ratio (OR)=1.23 (p>0.05). The rare allele (AG+GG) was found to be present more in cases (28.3%) than in controls (24%), though the association was not significant (p<0.05). However, a significant risk of more than 2-fold was found for the variant allele (AG+GG) with smokers in cases as compared to controls (p>0.05). Conclusions: Thus, it is evident from our study that GSTP1 SNP is not implicated overall in bladder cancer, but that the rare, valine-related allele is connected with higher susceptibility to bladder cancer in smokers and also males.