The potential DNA toxic changes among workers exposed to antimony trioxide

Abstract

Occupational exposure to antimony has gained much interest when specific toxic effects were noticed among workers processing antimony. Thus, the aim of the present work was to investigate the potential DNA oxidative damage occurring among Egyptian workers occupationally exposed to antimony trioxide. The study was conducted on 25 subjects exposed to antimony trioxide while working in the polymerization process of polyester in Misrayon and Polyester Fiber Company, KafrEldawwar, Beheira, Egypt. Urinary antimony levels were assessed using inductive coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and considered as a biological exposure index. DNA damage and total oxidant capacity (TOC) were assessed using ELISA. DNA damage was detected in the form of increased apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) sites among antimony trioxide-exposed workers compared to control subjects, but it could not be explained by oxidative mechanisms due to lack of significant correlation between DNA damage and measured TOC. Antimony trioxide might have a genotoxic impact on occupationally exposed workers which could not be attributed to oxidative stress in the studied cases.

Environmental Health Research in Africa: Important Progress and Promising Opportunities

“…Repeated exposure to alpha-CYP pesticides appears to lead to p53 gene mutations (El Okda et al, 2017). A genotoxic impact for occupationally exposed antimony trioxide individuals was also reported with DNA damage detected in the form of increased apurinic/apyrimidic sites (El Shanawany et al, 2017). Interindividual variation in adduct levels associated with benzene and PAHs may reflect genetic susceptibility as well (Ayi-Fanou et al, 2011).…”

“…A variety of biomarkers were incorporated into various studies, especially to monitor kidney injury or dysfunction (Samir and Aref, 2011;Cabral et al, 2012;Cabral et al, 2015). Some heavy metals' association with lipid peroxidation, DNA damage, oxidative stress, or apoptosis was assessed (El-Baz et al, 2015;Bortey-Sam et al, 2018) and the genotoxic impact of some occupational exposures was explored (El Shanawany et al, 2017).…”

A Specific Fluorescent Probe for Antimony Based on Aggregation Induced Emission

“…Antimony is one of the heavy metals with high bio‐toxicity at low concentration . It can influence human beings' health deeply and cause serious diseases such as lung irritation, albuminuria, glycosuria, non‐malignant respiratory heart diseases and so on . Recently, the pollution of antimony in the dyeing and printing wastewater is particularly concerned by the Chinese government and the upper limit of antimony in textile dyeing and finishing industry water pollutant is stipulated to be 0.1 mg · L –1 .…”

Assessment of Industrial Antimony Exposure and Immunologic Function for Workers in Taiwan

“…Taiwan has also adopted the 8 h time weighted average concentration of antimony and its compounds in the air of workplace at a level of 0.5 mg/m 3 [ 8 ]. Antimony and its compounds may irritate eyes, skin, and respiratory systems, and are suspected to be carcinogenic and teratogenic substances [ 1 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. In an animal study, among rats exposed to substances containing Sb, only female rats developed lung cancer; 27% in those rats exposed to antimony trioxide and 25% in those rats exposed to antimony ore had the cancer [ 10 ].…”

“…Grosskopf et al reported that trivalent antimony was responsible for genotoxicity in the cellular system because antimony could partly impair the pathway of nucleotide repair [ 11 ]. DNA damage has been detected for workers with occupational exposure to antimony trioxide [ 12 , 13 ]. International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified trivalent antimony as a possible human carcinogen [ 14 ].…”