Nightshift work can induce oxidative DNA damage: a pilot study

Abstract

Background Regular sleep is very important for human health; however, the short-term and long-term effects of nightshift with sleep deprivation and disturbance on human metabolism, such as oxidative stress, have not been effectively evaluated based on a realistic cohort. We conducted the first long-term follow-up cohort study to evaluate the effect of nightshift work on DNA damage. Methods We recruited 16 healthy volunteers (aged 33 ± 5 years) working night shifts at the Department of Laboratory Medicine at a local hospital. Their matched serum and urine samples were collected at four time points: before, during (twice), and after the nightshift period. The levels of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanosine (8-oxoG) and 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2’-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG), two important nucleic-acid damage markers, were accurately determined based on a robust self-established LC‒MS/MS method. The Mann–Whitney U or Kruskal–Wallis test was used for comparisons, and Pearson’s or Spearman’s correlation analysis was used to calculate the correlation coefficients. Results The levels of serum 8-oxodG, estimated glomerular filtration rate-corrected serum 8-oxodG, and the serum-to-urine 8-oxodG ratio significantly increased during the nightshift period. These levels were significantly higher than pre-nightshift work level even after 1 month of discontinuation, but no such significant change was found for 8-oxoG. Moreover, 8-oxoG and 8-oxodG levels were significantly positively associated with many routine biomarkers, such as total bilirubin and urea levels, and significantly negatively associated with serum lipids, such as total cholesterol levels. Conclusion The results of our cohort study suggested that working night shifts may increase oxidative DNA damage even after a month of discontinuing nightshift work. Further studies with large-scale cohorts, different nightshift modes, and longer follow-up times are needed to clarify the short- and long-term effects of night shifts on DNA damage and find effective solutions to combat the negative effects.

Sleep deprivation induces genetic damage in mammalian cells: a systematic review

“…Similarly, brain cells increased 8-OHdG in mice exposed to paradoxical sleep deprivation 12 . In humans, the same result was observed in urine samples 14 .…”

“…TUNEL assay was applied by Everson et al 11 , counting cells into slides. Plasma or urine levels of 8-OHdG were evaluated by Everson et al 11 , Valvassori et al 12 , and Zou et al 14 . Zhang et al 13 performed FISH using telomere length as a numerical parameter of genotoxicity.…”

“…The quality assessment of manuscripts is shown in Table 2. After reviewing all studies, five papers were classified as strong 8,9,14,15 . In addition, two studies were categorized as moderate at the final rating, because they did not control two relevant variables 11,13 .…”