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Path Analysis of Biomarkers of Exposure and Early Biological Effects among Coke-Oven Workers Exposed to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

¹ Department of Epidemiology and Statistics, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China; and ² National Institute for Occupational Health and Poison Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China

Requests for reprints: Zengzhen Wang, Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hangkong Road 13, 430030 Wuhan, P.R. China. Phone: 86-27-83692725; Fax: 86-27-83692725. E-mail: wzzh{at}mails.tjmu.edu.cn or Yuxin Zheng, National Institute for Occupational Health and Poison Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 Nanwei Road, Beijing 100050, P.R. China. Phone: 86-10-83132515; Fax: 86-10-63182372. E-mail: yxzheng{at}163bj.com

Many host factors or biomarkers are involved in the process of early DNA damage induced by occupational exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) as seen in coke-oven workers. This paper aimed to identify complicated causal interrelationship of various biomarkers using the path analysis. In this analysis, we included 235 subjects (166 coke-oven workers and 69 nonexposed controls) whose data on the comet assay (e.g., Olive tail moment) and cytogenetic analysis of peripheral blood lymphocytes as well as urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP) were available. The path analysis showed that coke-oven exposure and tobacco smoke were both significant predictors of the concentrations of urinary 1-OHP (P < 0.05), with a coefficient of determination of 0.75. The factors having significant influence on the Olive tail moment were in the following order: urinary 1-OHP > XRCC1-exon 9 variant genotype > ERCC2-exon 10 variant genotype > XRCC1-exon 6 variant genotype, with a coefficient of determination of 0.22. The variables of relative importance in influencing on cytokinesis-block micronucleus frequencies were in the following order: coke-oven exposure > urinary 1-OHP > age > mEH3 variant genotype > ERCC2-exon 10 variant genotype > XRCC1-exon 6 variant genotype, with a coefficient of determination of 0.27. These results indicated that exogenous agents, especially the coke-oven exposure, played a more important role than the genotypes in the induction of early genetic damage. In conclusion, the path analysis seemed to be an alternative statistical approach for the ascertainment of complicated association among related biomarkers for the assessment of occupational exposure. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2007;16(6):1193–9)