title: Significant accumulation of persistent organic pollutants and dysregulation in multiple DNA damage repair pathways in the electronic-waste-exposed populations.
abstract: Electronic waste (e-waste) has created a worldwide environmental and health problem, by generating a diverse group of hazardous compounds such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Our previous studies demonstrated that populations from e-waste exposed region have a significantly higher level of chromosomal aberrancy and incidence of DNA damage. In this study, we further demonstrated that various POPs persisted at a significantly higher concentration in the exposed group than those in the unexposed group. The level of reactive oxygen species and micronucleus rate were also significantly elevated in the exposed group. RNA sequencing analysis revealed 31 genes in DNA damage responses and repair pathways that were differentially expressed between the two groups (Log2 ratio >1 or <-1). Our data demonstrated that both females and males of the exposed group have activated a series of DNA damage response genes; however many important DNA repair pathways have been dysregulated. Expressions of NEIL1/3 and RPA3, which are critical in initiating base pair and nucleotide excision repairs respectively, have been downregulated in both females and males of the exposed group. In contrast, expression of RNF8, an E3 ligase involved in an error prone non-homologous end joining repair for DNA double strand break, was upregulated in both genders of the exposed group. The other genes appeared to be differentially expressed only when the males or females of the two groups were compared respectively. Importantly, the expression of cell cycle regulatory gene CDC25A that has been implicated in multiple kinds of malignant transformation was significantly upregulated among the exposed males while downregulated among the exposed females. In conclusion, our studies have demonstrated significant correlations between e-waste disposing and POPs accumulation, DNA lesions and dysregulation of multiple DNA damage repair mechanisms in the residents of the e-waste exposed region.
authors: Basic Medical College, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, PR China.
authors: Xiaobo
authors: X
authors: He
authors: Basic Medical College, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, PR China.
authors: Yaqing
authors: Y
authors: Jing
authors: Basic Medical College, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, PR China.
authors: Jianhai
authors: J
authors: Wang
authors: Basic Medical College, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, PR China.
authors: Keqiu
authors: K
authors: Li
authors: Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, PR China.
authors: Qiaoyun
authors: Q
authors: Yang
authors: Basic Medical College, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, PR China.
authors: Yuxia
authors: Y
authors: Zhao
authors: State Key Joint Laboratory for Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and Center for Environment and Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China.
authors: Ran
authors: R
authors: Li
authors: Department of Breast Surgery, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin 300060, PR China; Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer Prevention and Treatment of the Ministry of Education, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin 300060, PR China.
authors: Jie
authors: J
authors: Ge
authors: State Key Joint Laboratory for Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and Center for Environment and Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China. Electronic address: xhqiu@pku.edu.cn.
authors: Xinghua
authors: X
authors: Qiu
authors: Basic Medical College, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, PR China. Electronic address: lig@tijmu.edu.cn.
authors: Guang
authors: G
authors: Li
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D004249:DNA Damage / Q000187:drug effects*; D059029:Electronic Waste / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*; D005260:Female; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012037:Refuse Disposal; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants
keywords: POPs-induced DNA damage response; Persistent organic pollutants (POPs)