Toxicology and risk assessment of acrolein in food

Abstract

Acrolein is an α,β-unsaturated aldehyde formed by thermal treatment of animal and vegetable fats, carbohydrates and amino acids. In addition it is generated endogenously. As an electrophile, acrolein forms adducts with gluthathione and other cellular components and is therefore cytotoxic. Mutagenicity was shown in some in vitro tests. Acrolein forms different DNA adducts in vivo, but mutagenic and cancerogenous effects have not been demonstrated for oral exposure. In subchronic oral studies, local lesions were detected in the stomach of rats. Systemic effects have not been reported from basic studies. A WHO working group established a tolerable oral acrolein intake of 7.5 μg/kg body weight/day. Acrolein exposure via food cannot be assessed due to analytical difficulties and the lack of reliable content measurements. Human biomonitoring of an acrolein urinary metabolite allows rough estimates of acrolein exposure in the range of a few μg/kg body weight/day. High exposure could be ten times higher after the consumption of certain foods. Although the estimation of the dietary acrolein exposure is associated with uncertainties, it is concluded that a health risk seems to be unlikely.

How do women at increased, but unexplained, familial risk of breast cancer perceive and manage their risk? A qualitative interview study

“…While other qualitative research has found that women living at high risk tend to be either making lifestyle or health care adjustments to reduce risk [21,35,36], we have found a greater range of risk management styles in our study, including those who do not know why they 'don't do anything.' The greater range of responses to risk revealed here is likely to be due to the fact that we were able to recruit outside the more motivated clinic-based sample to include women who were managing their familial breast cancer risk without the support of specialists, or genetic counselling or testing.…”

“…While there is agreement that understanding risk perception is an essential task if we are to assist women to manage risk, and make an informed decision about screening and prevention practices [19], there is also agreement that we currently do not have a consensus on effective ways to measure risk perception [7-9]. Risk is more complicated than many of the instruments developed to measure objective risk perception are able to capture, as people perceive risk in the context of their day-to-day lives, within their families, using the evidence they have been provided with, and the everyday reasoning tools available to them [9].…”

“…Risk is more complicated than many of the instruments developed to measure objective risk perception are able to capture, as people perceive risk in the context of their day-to-day lives, within their families, using the evidence they have been provided with, and the everyday reasoning tools available to them [9]. …”

“…It is increasingly recognised that risk perception is complex, multi-dimensional, and incompletely understood, and that research has failed to reach consensus on a model for measuring risk perception [7-9]. Collins and Street [10, p1506] argue that risk perception is influenced by 'scientific, psychological, social, economic, and cultural factors' and that while clinicians are more likely to use 'analytic' reasoning, patients are more likely to use 'experiential' reasoning in risk judgements.…”

Determination of Urine 3-HPMA, a Stable Acrolein Metabolite in a Rat Model of Spinal Cord Injury

“…14 Due to the noninvasive nature of measuring 3-HPMA in urine, this method has been used in estimating acrolein intake through tobacco exposure and food consumption in humans. 11,12,15 Based on this method, it was revealed that acrolein is significantly elevated in smokers as compared to nonsmokers, and decreased following the cessation of cigarette smoke. 11 However, such a method has not been widely used in human and animals models in which endogenous acrolein are elevated due to central nervous system damage or disease.…”