A panel study of occupational exposure to fine particulate matter and changes in DNA methylation over a single workday and years worked in boilermaker welders

Environmental Health

Research

Letizia Tarantini¹  Jennifer Cavallari²  David C Christiani³  Andrea A Baccarelli³  Shona Fang³  Molly L Kile⁴ 

[1] Center of Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Milan, Milan, Italy;Community Medicine Health Care,School of Medicine, University of Connecticut, 263 Farmington Avenue, CT 06030, Farmington, USA;Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, MA 02115, Boston, USA;Oregon State University, College of Public Health and Human Sciences, 15 Milam, OR 97331, Corvallis, USA;

关键词: DNA methylation;    PM2.5;    iNOS;    Welders;    LINE-1;    Alu;    Boilermakers;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1476-069X-12-47

 received in 2012-10-07, accepted in 2013-06-04,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundExposure to pollutants including metals and particulate air pollution can alter DNA methylation. Yet little is known about intra-individual changes in DNA methylation over time in relationship to environmental exposures. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of acute- and chronic metal-rich PM2.5 exposures on DNA methylation.MethodsThirty-eight male boilermaker welders participated in a panel study for a total of 54 person days. Whole blood was collected prior to any welding activities (pre-shift) and immediately after the exposure period (post-shift). The percentage of methylated cytosines (%mC) in LINE-1, Alu, and inducible nitric oxide synthase gene (iNOS) were quantified using pyrosequencing. Personal PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm) was measured over the work-shift. A questionnaire assessed job history and years worked as a boilermaker. Linear mixed models with repeated measures evaluated associations between DNA methylation, PM2.5 concentration (acute exposure), and years worked as a boilermaker (chronic exposure).ResultsPM2.5 exposure was associated with increased methylation in the promoter region of the iNOS gene (β = 0.25, SE: 0.11, p-value = 0.04). Additionally, the number of years worked as a boilermaker was associated with increased iNOS methylation (β = 0.03, SE: 0.01, p-value = 0.03). No associations were observed for Alu or LINE-1.ConclusionsAcute and chronic exposure to PM2.5 generated from welding activities was associated with a modest change in DNA methylation of the iNOS gene. Future studies are needed to confirm this association and determine if the observed small increase in iNOS methylation are associated with changes in NO production or any adverse health effect.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Kile et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.