U. Carstensen et al., B-LYMPHOCYTE AND T-LYMPHOCYTE MICRONUCLEI IN CHIMNEY SWEEPS WITH RESPECT TO GENETIC-POLYMORPHISM FOR CYP1A1 AND GST1 (CLASS MU), MUTATION RESEARCH, 289(2), 1993, pp. 187-195
Epidemiological studies have shown an increased incidence of lung canc
er, bladder cancer, and esophageal cancer in chimney sweeps, probably
due to their exposure to PAH in soot. The work environment for sweeps
has, however, improved during the last decades. It was thus important
to assess whether the present exposure still may cause genotoxic effec
ts. A further objective was to assess whether genetic polymorphisms in
metabolic enzyme activities could explain some of the variation in th
e parameters of genotoxicity. Venous blood samples were drawn from 71
chimney sweeps and 59 control subjects. Micronuclei were analyzed in a
ctivated peripheral B- and T-lymphocytes with preserved cytoplasm: Pol
ymorphisms for CYP1A1 and GST1 in the sweeps were analyzed by a PCR te
chnique. The sweeps did not have higher frequencies of micronuclei in
B- or T-lymphocytes than the control subjects, when allowance was made
for age and smoking in a multiple regression analysis. Further, there
was no association between years of active work as a sweep and any of
the two micronucleus parameters. None of the sweeps had the rare CYP1
A1 genotype val/val and only one individual had the m2/m2 genotype. Th
e presence of at least one GST1 allele (GST1+) was observed in 36 subj
ects (51.4%). Thirteen individuals (18.6%) were of the m1/m2 or m2/m2
genotype. And among those only seven had the combined GST1- and m1/m2
genotype. No difference was observed in B- or T-lymphocyte micronucleu
s frequencies between sweeps with the rare CYP1A1 genotypes m1/m2, m2/
m2 or ile/val compared to individuals with the m1/m1 and ile/ile genot
ypes. Moreover, the GST1 deficient sweeps (GST1-) did not show any alt
ered micronucleus frequency compared to the GST1 positive sweeps. A po
ssible reason for the lack of genotoxic effect in sweeps is the improv
ed hygienic conditions and change in fuels, which has decreased the ex
posure levels for PAH. Host polymorphisms for metabolizing enzymes did
not influence the micronucleus frequencies. As the sweeps did not dif
fer from the control subjects, with respect to micronucleus frequencie
s, no conclusion on the importance of host polymorphisms for genotoxic
risk can be drawn.