No abstract

This study investigated whether mothers with prenatal environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure increased the newborn genetic damage and adverse birth outcomes. Study participants were women receiving prenatal care at three hospitals in Central Taiwan and their newborns. Participants were divided into two groups (nonsmokers and ETS-exposed non-smokers) based on maternal ETSexposed status. Comet assay were performed for cord blood samples. Infants born to mothers with prenatal ETS exposure had the highest mean cord blood DNA damage score (69.7 Ϯ 42.3) and poorer birth outcomes. No negative fetal growth effects appeared among newborns with low DNA damage levels. Among newborns with high DNA damage levels (comet scores Ͼ50), those born to prenatal ETS exposure had an average reduction of 252.7 g in birth weight, 1.10 cm shorter in length and a 0.92-cm decrease in head circumference, compared to newborns with no smoking exposure. This study shows that the DNA damage scores can be used as an effect-modifier on the relationships between ETS exposure and adverse birth outcome. The association appears more apparent for the ETS exposure in relation with more severe DNA damage. S tudies have suggested adverse reproductive outcomes among newborns in relation to maternal cigarette smoking and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure during pregnancy. Most of these studies are based on self-reported smoking status, and serum or urinary cotinine levels as the exposure measures (1-6). Some studies failed to find a significant association (7-11). The discrepancy could be explained by the variability of study populations, sample size, study design, and individual susceptibility (12,13). Other markers linking the association between smoking and/or ETS and pregnant outcomes deserve exploration.Cigarette smoke contains more than 4000 chemicals (14), including carcinogens such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), arylmines, N-nitrosamines (15,16), and aromatic amines. These compounds can cross the placenta and experimental animal studies have indicated that the fetus and newborn are more susceptible to carcinogens than adults (17)(18)(19). A study of white population showed that there is an increased susceptibility to DNA damage from PAHs and the diminished ability to clear ETS components for the fetus (20). de la Chica et al. found that maternal smoking exposure increase structural chromosomal abnormalities and chromosomal lesions in fetus (21). However, the effect of genotoxicity determined by comet assay for infants with prenatal smoking exposure has not been well documented. The comet assay is a sensitive technique allowing the detection of DNA damage at the single cell level. This assay is also effective in detecting DNA damage induced by tobacco smoke toxicants in white blood cells (22).The smoking prevalence among women in Taiwan has recently increased to 5.95%, and as many as 42.4% of women are daily exposed to ETS (23). Another studies in Taiwan showed that 58% of pregnant women and 57% of neversmoked wo...

Detection of plasma human herpesvirus (HHV)-8 DNA correlates with antibodies to lytic HHV-8 antigens, being predictive of Kaposi's sarcoma in HIV-infected patients. We show that the prevalence of plasma HHV-8 DNA was 10.6% for HIV infection through sexual contact and 7.1% for HIV infection through intravenous injection. In addition, the prevalence of plasma HHV-8 DNA was significantly associated with male gender (9.4%) and HIV viral load below 1000 copies mL(-1) (12.1%), but not age or CD4 cell count in HIV-infected patients. The study suggested that detection of plasma HHV-8 DNA could be important for monitoring replicating HHV-8 in HIV-infected patients, and may have use as a marker for the diagnosis of HHV-8 infection in blood-borne transmission.