VISION H2020 Project
Published November 30, 2022 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Genotoxic effects of occupational exposure to glass fibres - A human biomonitoring study

Creators

  • 1. Biostatistics Unit, San Martino Policlinic Hospital, Genoa, Italy
  • 2. Cancer Research Institute, Biomedical Research Center, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia
  • 3. Department of Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Slovak Medical University, Bratislava, Slovakia
  • 4. Department of Nutrition, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
  • 5. Department of Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Slovak Medical University, Bratislava, Slovakia; Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Science (IMBA), Vienna BioCenter (VBC), Vienna, Austria
  • 6. Laboratory of Immunotoxicology, Slovak Medical University in Bratislava, Slovakia
  • 7. Department of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacotherapy, Slovak Medical University, Bratislava, Slovakia
  • 8. Institute of Biophysics, Informatics and BioStatistics, Faculty of Public Health, Slovak Medical University, Bratislava, Slovakia
  • 9. National Transplant Organization, Bratislava, Slovakia
  • 10. Health Effects Laboratory, Department for Environmental Chemistry, NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Kjeller, Norway
  • 11. Biomedical Center Martin, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, Comenius University in Bratislava, Martin, Slovakia
  • 12. Institute of Biology, Medicinal Chemistry, and Biotechnology, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, Greece
  • 13. IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, Unit of Clinical and Molecular Epidemiology, Rome, Italy; Corresponding authors.
  • 14. Health Effects Laboratory, Department for Environmental Chemistry, NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Kjeller, Norway; Corresponding authors.

Description

As part of a large human biomonitoring study, we conducted occupational monitoring in a glass fibre factory in Slovakia. Shopfloor workers (n = 80), with a matched group of administrators in the same factory (n = 36), were monitored for exposure to glass fibres and to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The impact of occupational exposure on chromosomal aberrations, DNA damage and DNA repair, immunomodulatory markers, and the role of nutritional and lifestyle factors, as well as the effect of polymorphisms in metabolic and DNA repair genes on genetic stability, were investigated.
The (enzyme-modified) comet assay was employed to measure DNA strand breaks (SBs) and apurinic sites, oxidised and alkylated bases. Antioxidant status was estimated by resistance to H2O2-induced DNA damage. Base excision repair capacity was measured with an in vitro assay (based on the comet assay).
Exposure of workers to fibres was low, but still was associated with higher levels of SBs, and SBs plus oxidised bases, and higher sensitivity to H2O2. Multivariate analysis showed that exposure increased the risk of high levels of SBs by 20%. DNA damage was influenced by antioxidant enzymes catalase and glutathione S-transferase (measured in blood). DNA repair capacity was inversely correlated with DNA damage and positively with antioxidant status. An inverse correlation was found between DNA base oxidation and the percentage of eosinophils (involved in the inflammatory response) in peripheral blood of both exposed and reference groups. Genotypes of XRCC1 variants rs3213245 and rs25487 significantly decreased the risk of high levels of base oxidation, to 0.50 (p = 0.001) and 0.59 (p = 0.001), respectively.
Increases in DNA damage owing to glass fibre exposure were significant but modest, and no increases were seen in chromosome aberrations or micronuclei. However, it is of concern that even low levels of exposure to these fibres can cause significant genetic damage.

Notes

We thank all participants in the Glass fibre factory (Skloplast Trnava), as well as the management, for their enthusiastic participation. Sampling and medical investigation were carried out with the help of the National Institute of Health, Banska Bystrica. Filters were analysed by Dr Machata NIH Nitra and Dr. Kristin. We thank Dr Kornelia Burghardtova and Helena Petrovska for their help with the comet assay, Vikki Harrington for her analysing DNA repair capacities, and, Bibiana Valova, Anna Moravkova, Anna Gaziova, Renata Mateova, Kristına Gavalova, Zuzana Rostasova, Lubica Mikloskova and Jarmila Jantoskova for their excellent technical help. This work was supported by the European Union (project FIBRETOX no. QLK4–1999-01629), hCOMET (Cost action CA15132), H2020 projects VISION (no. 857381), by the Operational Programme Integrated Infrastructure project LISPER (grant no. IMTS:313011V446) and by the Horizon Europe project PARC (no. 101057014). Ro 19–8022 was kindly provided by Hoffmann La Roche.

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Funding

VISION – Strategies to strengthen scientific excellence and innoVation capacIty for early diagnoSIs of gastrOintestinal caNcers 857381
European Commission