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List of Publications by Department for the Academic Year Evaluation Of Biomarkers Of Genotoxicity As An Indicator Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Pollution In North District Of Lebanon

Abstract

 Humans are exposed exogenously to chemical carcinogen from occupational, environmental, life style or dietary source, and that such exposure can cause a number of different human cancers. Genotoxic biomarkers can be used to measure specific occupational and environmental exposure and to predict the risk of disease in subjects exposed to chemical carcinogens. To our knowledge, there is no study about the effect of the Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) pollution on the Lebanese population, notably the effect of the procarcinogen benzo{a}pyrene (B{a}P) and its ultimate mutagen benzo{a}pyrene diol epoxide (BPDE) on human’s DNA. We aimed to detect the levels of BPDE-DNA adducts as a genotoxic biomarker in the Lebanese population from three different regions of the North District of Lebanon (Chekka, Tripoli, EL Mina). 50 random unrelated subjects from different regions of the North of various age and gender were recruited to the study. After extraction of their genomic DNA, BPDE-DNA adducts were detected by the ELISA method. Our results showed that 54% of the recruited subjects were shown to be positive for BPDE-DNA adducts. The highest percentage for positive BPDE-DNA adducts obtained was 63.2% for the residents of Al-Tal Area one of the most crowded area of Tripoli city, 52.9% for Chekka region, and the lowest percentage was observed for Al-Mina region (42.9 %) . Our data showed that the highest levels of BPDE-DNA adducts were notably observed in Al-Tal region with 31.6% of the residents of this area showed higher than 125 ng/mL of BPDE-DNA adducts concentration. We have also studied the association of BPDE-DNA adducts with the genetic polymorphism of the glutathione S-transferase (GST) genes: GSTM1, and GSTT1 which have been shown to play an important role in the metabolic detoxification of B{a}P . Our results showed that among the 50 recruited subjects, 56.2% of the GSTM1 phenotype were positive for BPDE-DNA adducts compared to 52.9% for the subjects with an active GSTM1 gene indicating that the GSTM1 has little or no effect on the occurrence of BPDE-DNA adducts. The GSTT1 phenotypes showed higher percentage of positive BPDE-DNA adducts although the results were not statistically significant since 64.3% of the GSTT1 phenotype subjects were positive for BPDE-DNA adducts while 50% of those possessing an active GSTT1 gene were positive for BPDE-DNA adducts.

Author(s)

Rayane Waddah El Jam

Coauthor(s)

Prof. Dr Ahmad Abed El Karim, Dr. Hala Chamieh