title: White blood cell sister chromatid exchange among a sample of Thai subjects exposed to toluene, an observation.
abstract: There is a particular concern with toluene because some research has indicated that toluene exposure could result in chronic toxicity including mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. This study aimed to determine the rate of sister chromatid exchanges (SCE), a marker for genotoxicity, and its correlation to the classical urine biomarker for toluene exposure, urine hippuric acid, among a sample of Thai exposed subjects. A total of 26 police (all males) were included in this study. The average (mean +/- SD) urine hippuric acid level in these police was 0.8 +/- 0.4 mg/g creatinine. The average (mean +/- SD) SCE level in these police was 4.5 +/- 1.0/cell. The average SCE among the police with high urine hippuric acid levels was non-significantly higher than the average SCE level of those without (P = 0.41). This implies that the cytogenetic response to toluene was not different between the subjects with and without high toluene exposure. High exposure to toluene seems not to be related to high SCE.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. wviroj@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Viroj
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Wiwanitkit
authors.forename: Jamsai
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Suwansaksri
authors.forename: Suphan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Soogarun
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational / Q000633:toxicity*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000652:urine; D006626:Hippurates / Q000652:urine; D006801:Humans; D019570:Inhalation Exposure; D007962:Leukocytes; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009152:Mutagenicity Tests; D016495:Police; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012854:Sister Chromatid Exchange; D012997:Solvents / Q000633:toxicity*; D013785:Thailand; D014050:Toluene / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational; D015415:Biomarkers; D006626:Hippurates; D012997:Solvents; D014050:Toluene; C030514:hippuric acid