Relationship between hprt mutant frequency, aromatic DNA adducts and genotypes for GSTM1 and NAT2 in bus maintenance workers

Abstract

We have studied the mutant frequency in the human gene for hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (hprt) using the T-cell cloning assay, the aromatic DNA adduct level using the 32P-postlabelling assay, and related the levels of these biomarkers to the genotypes for glutathione transferase (GST mu) and N-acetyltransferase (NAT2) in non-smoking bus maintenance workers exposed to diesel exhaust. No difference in mutant frequency was observed between the 47 exposed (8.6 x 10(-6), age range 27-65) and the 22 control individuals (8.4 x 10(-6), age range 23-61), while the difference in adduct level (3.2 versus 2.3 x 10(-8)) was highly significant (P = 0.0009). Both mutant frequency and adduct level were highest in the 16 most heavily exposed workers. Overall, a significant increase of mutant frequency was observed with adduct level (P = 0.008) as well as with age (P < 0.0001). The age dependence was higher in the GSTM1-negative slow acetylators (3.1%/year) as compared to the three other genotype combinations (2.4-2.5%/year). There was no significant difference in mutant frequency or in adduct level between the GSTM1-negative (49.3% of the population) and positive individuals, or between the slow (60.9% of the population) and rapid acetylators. Among the slow acetylators, however, a significantly higher adduct level (P = 0.03) was obtained for the GSTM1-negative individuals as compared to the GSTM1-positive individuals. These results suggest a possible role of both GST mu and NAT2 for individual susceptibility to carcinogen exposure.