Cytogenetic monitoring of occupational exposure to pesticides: Characterization of GSTM1, GSTT1, and NAT2 genotypes

✍ Scribed by Roberto Scarpato; Lucia Migliore; Ari Hirvonen; Ghita Falck; Hannu Norppa

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 670 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0893-6692
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1098-2280(1996)27:4<263::aid-em3>3.0.co;2-e

✦ Synopsis

Occupational exposure of floriculturists is characterized by alternating periods of intense pesticide spraying and reduced or no activity. Induction of sister chromatid exchanges (SCE), structural chromosome aberrations (CA) and micronuclei (MN) was investigated in peripheral lymphocytes of a group of 23 Italian floriculturists and 22 matched controls. Blood sampling was performed during and one month after the end of intensive pesticide treatments, in order to cover a period of high and low exposure, respectively. Each donor was genotyped for glutathione Stransferase M1 (GSTM I ) , T1 (GSTTJ), and N-acetyltransferase 2 (NATZ), three polymorphic genes involved in xenobiotic metabolism, to assess their potential role in individual geno-toxic response to the pesticide exposure. No effect of the pesticide exposure on the cytogenetic parameters were detected. Smoking, however, was found to increase SCE levels. The only significant influence of phenotype composition on cytogenetic response was an increase in SCE levels in the GSTTI positive individuals compared with the GSTTJ nulls ( P = 0.02). This finding was, however, based on only four GSTTl null donors (n = 41 for GSTTJ positive donors). In addition, a possible interaction was o b served between smoking and GSTM I genotype in the CAassay, GSTM I null smokers, earlier reported to have an elevated risk for lung cancer, showing higher CA frequencies than GSTM J positive smokers.