Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) Concentration Levels in Human Gallbladder Stones and Gallbladder Tissues in Jordan

The concentration levels of 12 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners in human gallbladder tissue and gallbladder stone samples gathered from patients in the Jordan University Hospital were measured. The total mean concentration of PCBs in gallbladder tissues samples was 491.36 µg/kg wet weight. The total mean concentration of PCBs in gallbladder stone samples was 504.03 µg/kg. Pentachlorobiphenyls were predominant PCB congeners, accounting for 23.85% of the total PCB concentration found in gallbladder tissue samples and 25.48% in gallbladder stone samples which represent the most toxic compound between all congeners dioxin-like PCBs. The TEQ values for PCBs in all samples were found in the range of (0.0001–11.72) µg TEQ/kg for gallbladder tissue samples and (0.00–12.84) µg TEQ/kg for gallbladder stone samples. The distribution coefficients of PCBs were calculated between gallbladder stones and gallbladder tissues in each sample. Kd (Cstone/Ctissue) values for PCBs were found in the range 0.22–3.18. The variations in Kd were found to be dependent mainly on type of gallbladder stone and obesity of patient. The results of this study show that both gallbladder stones and gallbladder tissues can be used to assess levels of background contamination especially if the stone was of pure cholesterol type (lipophilicity of the stones). Also a correlation between PCB concentrations and dysplasia in few samples implied that PCBs could be a potential contribution factor to gallbladder tissue mutations. This needs to be generalized by an extensive future study on representative number of gallbladder tissues with dysplasia.