Evaluation of immunological, inflammatory, and oxidative stress biomarkers in gasoline station attendants

Abstract

BackgroundGasoline is a complex mixture of saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons, in which aromatic compounds, such as BTX (benzene, toluene, and xylene) feature as the main constituents. Simultaneous exposure to these aromatic hydrocarbons causes a significant impact on benzene toxicity. In order to detect early alterations caused in gasoline station attendants exposed to BTX compounds, immunological, inflammatory, and oxidative stress biomarkers were evaluated.MethodsA total of 66 male subjects participated in this study. The gasoline station attendants (GSA) group consisted of 38 gasoline station attendants from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The non-exposed group consisted of 28 subjects who were non-smokers and who had no history of occupational exposure. Environmental and biological monitoring of BTX exposure was performed using blood and urine.ResultsThe GSA group showed increased BTX concentrations in relation to the non-exposed group (p < 0.001). The GSA group showed elevated protein carbonyl (PCO) levels and pro-inflammatory cytokines, decreased expression of CD80 and CD86 in monocytes, and reduced glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity compared to the non-exposed group (p < 0.05). BTX levels and trans,trans-muconic acid levels were positively correlated with pro-inflammatory cytokines and negatively correlated with interleukin-10 contents (p < 0.001). Increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines were accompanied by increased PCO contents and decreased GST activity (p < 0.001). Furthermore, according to the multiple linear regression analysis, benzene exposure was the only factor that significantly contributed to the increased pro-inflammatory cytokines (p < 0.05).ConclusionsTaken together, these findings show the influence of exposure to BTX compounds, especially benzene, on the immunological, inflammatory, and oxidative stress biomarkers evaluated. Furthermore, the data suggest the relationship among the evaluated biomarkers of effect, which could contribute to providing early signs of damage to biomolecules in subjects occupationally exposed to BTX compounds.

Buckwheat, rooibos, and vitex extracts can mitigate adverse effects of xylene on ovarian cells in vitro

“…Xylene and plants can be antagonists in control of oxidative processes. For example, xylene can induce oxidative stress (Niaz et al 2015;Salimi et al 2017;Moro et al 2019), while the plant extracts contain a number of antioxidants (McKay and Blumberg 2007;Giménez-Bastida et al 2017;Ban et al 2020). Another common target of xylene and plants could involve steroidogenesis: xylene suppressed it in our present and previous (see "Introduction") experiments, while the plant extracts contain a high level of phytoestrogens with physiological and therapeutical functions (Sirotkin and Harrath 2014) that can neutralize the anti-steroidogenic action of xylene.…”

Evaluation of the in vitro and in vivo antioxidant potential of Punica granatum L. against toluene-induced liver injuries in rats

“…This could be attributed to an increase in the activity of inflammatory agents that could have resulted in the inflammation of liver tissues. It has recently been shown that exposure to gasoline containing Tol provoked an elevation of the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, and interferon-γ [27].…”

Clastogenicity and Aneugenicity of 1,4-Benzoquinone in Different Lineages of Mouse Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells

“…A study by Wang et al (2012) [ 15 ] speculated that benzene-mediated hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) toxicity involved several mechanisms of action, including CA, genomic instability, macromolecular adduct formation, oxidative stress, alteration of gene expression and epigenetic regulation, apoptosis induction, error-prone DNA repair, and disruption of tumor surveillance. Moreover, leukemia is a clonal hematological malignancy initiated by epigenetic alterations or CA, either via clastogenicity (structural CA) or aneugenicity (numerical CA) occurring in HSPCs [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Therefore, benzene toxicity affecting the chromosomal status of HSPCs may be one of the mechanisms of benzene-induced leukemia in humans [ 5 ].…”