Occupational exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in German industries: Association between exogenous exposure and urinary metabolites and its modulation by enzyme polymorphisms

Abstract A cross-sectional study was conducted in 170 German workers exposed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) to investigate the role of 11 polymorphisms of CYP1A1 , CYP1A2 , CYP1B1 , CYP3A4 , EPHX1 , GSTM1 , GSTT1 , and GSTP1 in the association between occupational exposure to PAH and urinary PAH metabolites. Polymorphisms were genotyped with real-time PCR. Exposure to 16 PAH was measured by personal air sampling. Urinary concentrations of 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP) and the sum of 1-, 2 + 9-, 3-, and 4-hydroxyphenanthrenes (OHPhe) were determined post-shift. Urinary 1-OHP and OHPhe correlated significantly with exogenous pyrene (Spearman r  = 0.52, p r  = 0.72, p CYP1A1 3801TC carriers showed 1.6-fold higher OHPhe levels than 3801TT carriers ( p  = 0.03). EPHX1 113HH was associated with higher and 139RR with lower metabolite levels when compared with the corresponding reference genotypes (113YY; 139HH). In comparison to GSTP1 114AA, carriers of the V allele had 1.5-fold higher 1-OHP ( p  = 0.03) and 2-fold higher OHPhe concentrations ( p  = 0.001). OHPhe turned out to be also a suitable biomarker of occupational PAH exposure. The association with ambient PAH exposure and the influence of polymorphisms was more pronounced for OHPhe.