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Genes targeted by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as biomarkers of exposure Volume 10, issue 3, Mai-Juin 2011

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Université de Rennes-I IRSET EA 4427 SeRAIC Équipe « toxicité des hydrocarbures aromatiques polycycliques » 2, avenue du Pr-Léon-Bernard 35043 Rennes, France, EDF Service des études médicales 45, rue Kleber 92309 Levallois-Perret cedex France, Institut Gustave-Roussy Département d’épidémiologie et de biostatistiques 39 bis, rue Camille-Desmoulins 94800 Villejuif, France, Ineris Unité « toxicologie expérimentale » Parc Alata, BP2 60550 Verneuil-en-Halatte France, Ineris Unité « modèles pour l’écotoxicologie et la toxicologie », CHU de Rennes Département HITC 2, rue Henri-Le-Guilloux 35033 Rennes, France

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), such as benzo( a)pyrene (B aP), are ubiquitous environmental contaminants known to exert a variety of toxic effects – carcinogenic, immunosuppressive, or proinflammatory – on the human body. Among the target of PAHs are mature differentiated macrophages that express a functional aryl hydrocarbon receptor. Because the exact nature of molecular PAHs target genes in human macrophages remains largely undetermined, we used pangenomic oligonucleotide microarrays to analyse gene expression profiles of B aP-treated primary human macrophages. This study presents target genes within macrophages that are induced by B aP, such as interleukin 1β and cytochrome P450 1B1, have little interindividual variation in primary human macrophagic cultures, and are similarly up-regulated in alveolar macrophages from B aP-instilled rats. Different PAHs induce specific target genes, a specificity that suggests that they may be good candidates for monitoring in vivo exposure to these PAHs.