PIG-A gene mutation as a mutagenicity biomarker among coke oven workers.

Jing Xi, Yiyi Cao, Yanhua Wang, Xinyue You, Weiying Liu, Ting Wang, Jingjing Yin, Junxiang Ma, Zhenjie Wang, Nan Wu, Xinyu Zhang, Huawei Duan, Yang Luan

Food and chemical toxicology : an international journal published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association 2023 Aug

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PIG-A gene mutations can be detected in humans, and PIG-A assays can potentially predict the risk of exposure to carcinogens. However, extensive, population-based studies to validate this are lacking. We studied a cohort of occupational coke oven workers with chronic high exposure to carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are well-studied genotoxins classified by the IARC as carcinogenic to humans. Peripheral blood erythrocytes of workers were assessed for gene mutations using a PIG-A assay, and chromosome damage using the cytokinesis-block micronucleus test with lymphocytes. Two sample populations from a non-industrialized city and new employees in industrial plants were selected as controls. We observed a significantly elevated PIG-A mutation frequency (MF) and increased frequencies of micronuclei (MN) and nuclear buds (NBUDs) in coke oven workers, compared with levels in the control groups. We found that the coke oven workers with different lengths of service had a relatively high mutation frequency. Overall, the study findings showed that occupational exposure of coke oven workers increases the genetic damage and the PIG-A MF could be a potential biomarker for risk assessment of carcinogen exposure. Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Citation

Jing Xi, Yiyi Cao, Yanhua Wang, Xinyue You, Weiying Liu, Ting Wang, Jingjing Yin, Junxiang Ma, Zhenjie Wang, Nan Wu, Xinyu Zhang, Huawei Duan, Yang Luan. PIG-A gene mutation as a mutagenicity biomarker among coke oven workers. Food and chemical toxicology : an international journal published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association. 2023 Aug;178:113872