title: A relationship between cord blood and maternal blood lymphocytes and term placenta in the induction of aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase activity.
abstract: Correlations between lymphocyte aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) inducibility in cord blood and maternal lymphocytes and placental AHH activity were studied in 15 smokers and 11 non-smokers. Placental AHH activity was extremely low in the non-smokers regardless of the lymphocyte AHH induction ratio, but was elevated to a variable extent in the smokers, in whom it showed a statistically significant correlation (r = 0.75, P less than 0.01) with cord blood lymphocyte AHH inducibility. The correlation between maternal lymphocyte AHH inducibility and placental AHH activity was poor (r = 0.04, not significant). These findings suggest that AHH induction in man may be 'systematically' regulated and that the genetic background will determine the extent of induction at a given level of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001189:Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D004790:Enzyme Induction; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000201:enzymology*; D010920:Placenta / Q000201:enzymology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000201:enzymology
chemical_list: D001189:Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases