Markers for carcinogenicity among butadiene-polymer workers in China.

Abstract We examined a spectrum of genotoxic and other outcomes in 41 butadiene-polymer production workers and 38 nonexposed controls, in China, to explore the role of butadiene in human carcinogenesis. Among butadiene- exposedworkers, median air exposure was 2 ppm (6-h TWA), due largely to intermittent high-level exposures. Compared to unexposed subjects, butadiene- exposedworkers had greater levels of hemoglobin N -(2,3,4-trihydroxybutyl)valine (THBVal) adducts ( P P =0.03). Butadiene- exposedworkers did not differ, however, from unexposed workers with respect to frequency of uninduced or diepoxybutane-induced sister chromatid exchanges, aneuploidyas measured by fluorescence in situ hybridization of chromosomes 1, 7, 8 and 12, glycophorinA variants or lymphocyte hprt somatic mutation. Also among the exposed, greater THBVal levels were not associated with increases in uninduced sister chromatid exchanges, aneuploidy, glycophorinA, or hprt mutations. Butadiene- exposedworkers had greater lymphocyte ( P= 0.002) and platelet counts ( P =0.07) and lymphocytes as a percent of white blood cells were moderately correlated with greater THBVal levels (Spearman's ρ =0.32, P =0.07). Among butadiene- exposedworkers, several serum cytokines correlated with THBVal adduct levels. Overall, the study demonstrated exposure to butadiene in these workers, by a variety of short-term and long-term measures, but did not show specific genotoxic effects, at the chromosomal or gene levels, related to that exposure.