Effect of Air Formaldehyde Exposure of Medical Students on DNA-Protein Crosslinks in Their Buccal Mucosa Cells / 环境与健康杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the effect of formaldehyde exposure on DNA-protein crosslinks (DPC) in buccal mucosa cells in students who were taking anatomy course.Methods The modified SDS-KCl precipitation assay published by Zhitkovich and Costa in 1992 was applied to detect DNA-protein crosslinks in human cells.And this method has been used to explore DPC induced by different pollutants in numerous studies.37 medical students (20 males and 17 females) aged 19.24?1.09 (mean?standard deviation) and 40 students (20 males and 20 females) in natural science college aged 19.55?0.99 (mean?standard deviation) were studied.The frequency of exposure to formaldehyde was 6 h per week in exposed group.Results Concentrations of formaldehyde in anatomy laboratory ranged from 0.42 to 1.57 mg/m3.Exposure to formaldehyde resulted in an increase of DNA-protein crosslinks.The percentage (mean?standard deviation) of DNA-protein crosslinks in exposed and nonexposed students were 25.72%?6.48% and 22.88%?5.34% respectively(P0.05).Conclusion The result of the present study suggests that formaldehyde exposure in medical students increases the frequency of DNA-protein crosslinks in buccal mucosa cells and females may be more sensitive to formaldehyde exposure.