Measurement of DNA adducts in humans after complex mixture exposure

In contrast to acute or chronic dosing experiments with a single chemical in animals, man is exposed to thousands of chemicals during a lifetime. Each of these may act alone, additively, synergistically or antagonistically in terms of biological effects, but most current risk assessment procedures fail to recognize such interactions. In carcinogenesis, a mutational process that is thought to occur through DNA damage by endogenous and/or exogenous agents, a wide variety of host factors is involved in disease outcome. These include absorption of chemicals, their distribution, metabolism and excretion. In addition, once metabolic activation has occurred, there is an array of protective mechanisms that cells have evolved to maintain DNA integrity, such as DNA repair, genetic redundancy and programmed cell death. One approach to risk assessment is to regard all DNA-damaging events as potentially leading to cancer and to measure DNA damage as the biologically relevant endpoint. The main method, if not the only method, presently available to assay a wide range of DNA adducts is 32P-postlabelling. This method has high sensitivity (limit of detection > 1 adduct per 10(10) nucleotides) and is capable of visualizing many different DNA adducts in a single analysis. Postlabelling is best suited for detecting hydrophobic adducts--low molecular weight adducts usually need a preliminary separation procedure prior to being postlabelled. This chromatographic procedure has been used to study DNA samples from human tissues of cigarette smokers, occupationally exposed groups and individuals living in polluted environments. Correlations have been found between the severity of exposure and the level of DNA adducts detected for human samples. However, most studies are single-time point studies, whereas for risk assessment purposes it may be better to use more quantitative and representative measures of long-term exposure, for example the number of adducts formed per annum. This article reviews methods of DNA adduct measurement, with particular reference to the 32P-postlabelling technique, which has been used to determine DNA adduct levels in populations exposed to complex mixtures.