Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, Vol 2, Issue 1 47-51, Copyright © 1993 by American Association for Cancer Research

ARTICLES

Urinary trans,trans-muconic acid as an indicator of exposure to benzene in cigarette smokers

AA Melikian, AK Prahalad and D Hoffmann
American Health Foundation, Naylor Dana Institute for Disease Prevention, Valhalla, New York 10595.

Epidemiological studies have shown an association between cigarette smoking and increased risk of myeloid leukemia in smokers. In evaluating this link it is important to note that cigarette smoke contains benzene, among other carcinogens. Since chronic benzene, among other carcinogens. Since chronic benzene exposure causes acute myeloid leukemia in humans, we aimed to determine the uptake and metabolic activation of benzene from cigarette smoke in smokers by measuring the levels of the urinary benzene metabolite, trans,trans-muconic acid (t,t-MA). The method used involved a clean-up procedure, followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection. The levels of urinary t,t-MA ranged from 0.02 to 1.3 mg/g creatinine, resulting in a mean of 0.29 +/- 0.04 mg/g creatinine in 42 male smokers, and corresponding values in nonsmokers ranged from "nondetectable" to 0.52 mg/g creatinine with an average of 0.09 +/- 0.02 mg/g creatinine. In the current study, the levels of t,t-MA in smokers were about 3 times higher than those in nonsmokers (P = 0.0001), and a significant correlation between concentration of t,t-MA and levels of cotinine in smokers was observed (r = 0.55; P = 0.0001; 95% confidence interval, 0.30-0.93), suggesting that urinary t,t-MA can be utilized as a biochemical marker to quantitate benzene exposure due to cigarette smoking.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. M. Rappaport, S. Waidyanatha, Q. Qu, R. Shore, X. Jin, B. Cohen, L.-C. Chen, A. A. Melikian, G. Li, S. Yin, et al. Albumin Adducts of Benzene Oxide and 1,4-Benzoquinone as Measures of Human Benzene Metabolism Cancer Res., March 1, 2002; 62(5): 1330 - 1337. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. A. Melikian, R. O'Connor, A. K. Prahalad, P. Hu, H. Li, M. Kagan, and S. Thompson Determination of the urinary benzene metabolites S-phenylmercapturic acid and trans,trans-muconic acid by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry Carcinogenesis, April 1, 1999; 20(4): 719 - 726. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]