DETERMINATION OF HPRT MUTANT FREQUENCY AND MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF T-LYMPHOCYTE MUTANTS DERIVED FROM COKE-OVEN WORKERS

We measured the frequency of mutant (MF) lymphocytes at the hpi? locus in a population of 43 coke-oven workers exposed to PAH and in a group of 26 non-exposed workers. A non-significant increase in MF in the ex posed group (19.0 +/- 16.3) compared to the non-exposed group (15.8 +/ - 14.6) was observed. Moreover, when we considered smoking habits for the overall population, the MF values were higher, although not signif icantly, in smokers than in non-smokers. For some T-cell mutant clone structural alterations, splicing and coding errors were detected by PC R-based methods. We analysed 161 HPRT- clones, derived from exposed an d non-exposed workers by multiplex-PCR and 56 HPRT- clones by reverse transcriptase-PCR. Overall, the percentages of the different types of gene alterations were similar in exposed and non-exposed subjects. Onl y the frequency of splice mutations in mutant clones derived from coke -oven workers was higher (22%) than in non-exposed donors (11%). (C) 1 998 Elsevier Science B.V.