[DNA repair: from the mechanisms to the impact on occupational research]

The human genome comprises more than three billion base pairs and a part of this information is responsible for the control of cell proliferation. Different internal and external factors are able to affect DNA and could influence the proliferation process. As a consequence critical diseases may occur. To prevent such harmful occurrences, the human body contains multiple repair enzymes that allow for the immediate elimination of DNA damage. Since each individual exhibits a set of gene variants with different properties, each person possesses his/her individual spectrum of DNA repair gene variants. For this reason, the first step of current studies is to obtain more information about the impact of DNA variants in repair enzymes in connection with certain occupational exposures with the aim to use this information in epidemiological models to calculate in which manner such variants are able to modulate DNA adducts or biomonitoring parameters.