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Biomedical subjects

U Plappert

Publications and source records attributed to U Plappert.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Biomarkers of genetic damage and inflammation in blood and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid among former German uranium miners: a pilot study.

Former East German uranium miners who are known to have been exposed to radon are estimated to be at high risk for lung carcinogenesis. Among these miners over 200 occupationally caused lung cancer cases are expected to occur each year, resulting in a total of 7,000-24,000 excess lung cancer cases in the coming years. It is still unknown whether there is a correlation between biomarkers and the exposure of the uranium miners to ionizing radiation that might enable us to trace those miners with high lung cancer risk. The primary aim of this pilot study was to test the possibility of performing a biomarker study in this unique cohort of former uranium miners in spite of several limitations that had to be taken into consideration when comparing them with healthy controls, such as old age, age-dependent diseases and potential confounding artefacts from dissimilar smoking patterns. The second aim was to test a range of biomarkers for DNA damage and inflammation in leukocytes and bronchoalveolar fluid for their ability to detect biological effects. In this cohort of miners we found an increased frequency of chromosomal aberrations in blood lymphocytes and an increased prevalence of both fibronectin and tumour necrosis factor alpha in the bronchoalveolar fluid.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

Short-term effects of early-acting and multilineage hematopoietic growth factors on the repair and proliferation of irradiated pure cord blood (CB) CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells.

PURPOSE: Hematopoietic growth factor(s) (GF) may exert positive effects in vitro or in vivo on the survival of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells after accidental or therapeutic total body irradiation. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We studied the clonogenic survival and DNA repair of irradiated (0.36, 0.73, and 1.46 Gy) CD34+ cord blood (CB) cells after short-term incubation (24 h) with GFs. CD34+ cells were stimulated with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), stem cell factor/c-kit ligand (SCF), interleukin-3 (IL-3), IL-6, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), and granulocyte-monocyte colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) alone or in combination in short-term serum-free liquid suspension cultures (LSC) immediately after irradiation and then assayed for clonogenic progenitors. DNA repair was evaluated by analysis of DNA strand breaks using the comet assay. Survival of CFU-GM, BFU-E, and CFU-Mix was determined and dose-response curves were fitted to the data. RESULTS: The radiobiological parameters (D[0] and n) showed significant GF(s) effects. Combination of IL-3 with IL-6, SCF or GM-CSF resulted in best survival for CFU-GM BFU-E and CFU-Mix, respectively. Combinations of three or more GFs did not increase the survival of clonogenic CD34+ cells compared to optimal two-factor combinations. The D[0] values for CFU-GM, BFU-E, and CFU-Mix ranged between 0.56-1.15, 0.41-2.24, and 0.56-1.29 Gy, respectively. As for controls, the curves remained strictly exponential, i.e., all survival curves were strictly exponential without any shoulder (extrapolation numbers n=1 for all tested GF(s). DNA repair capacity of CD34+ cells determined by comet assay, was measured before, immediately after irradiation, as well as 30 and 120 min after irradiation at 1 Gy. Notably, after irradiation the 2-h repair of cytokine-stimulated and unstimulated CD34+ cells was similar. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that increased survival of irradiated CB CD34+ cells after short-term GF treatment is mediated through proliferative GF effects on the surviving fraction but not through improved DNA repair capacity.

Cell Survival↗
PubMed1998

Laser pyrolysis products: sampling procedures, cytotoxic and genotoxic effects.

The use of lasers in medical applications has grown enormously in the last few years. Recent chemical analysis of the laser pyrolysis products revealed that aerosols generated by pyrolytic decomposition of tissue could be health hazards. Therefore we analysed the genotoxic and mutagenic effects of laser pyrolysis products from different types of porcine tissue. The tissues were irradiated with a surgical CO2 laser and the generated aerosols were sampled as particulate fractions as well as low and highly volatile fractions. Then human leukocytes were incubated with the pyrolysis products and subjected to the comet assay. The results of the comet assay indicated the pyrolysis products being inducers of DNA damage. The ability to induce genotoxic effects turned out to be strongly dependent on the type of tissue that had been irradiated during laser treatment. To check whether the pyrolysis products also have mutagenic properties the Salmonella mutagenicity assay was performed. The particulate aerosol fractions of skin, muscle tissue and liver tissue clearly proved to be mutagenic in TA98 in the presence of S9 mix. There was no mutagenic effect detectable without metabolic activation. In conclusion, our experiments showed that the laser pyrolysis products originating from porcine tissues induced very potent genotoxic as well as mutagenic effects and therefore they could be potential health hazards for humans.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1996

Radiation-induced DNA damage in canine hemopoietic cells and stromal cells as measured by the comet assay.

Stromal cell progenitors (fibroblastoid colony-forming unit; CFU-Fs) are representative of the progenitor cell population of the hemopoietic microenvironment in bone marrow (BM). Previous studies of the radiation dose-effect relationships for colony formation have shown that canine CFU-Fs are relatively radioresistant as characterized by a D0 value of about 2.4 Gy. In contrast, hemopoietic progenitors are particularly radiosensitive (D0 values= 0.12-0.60 Gy. In the present study, the alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis technique for the in situ quantitation of DNA strand breaks and alkali-labile sites was employed. Canine buffy coat cells from BM aspirates and cells harvested from CFU-F colonies or from mixed populations of adherent BM stomal cell (SC) layers were exposed to increasing doses of X-rays, embedded in agarose gel on slides, lysed with detergents, and placed in an electric field. DNA migrating from single cells in the gel was made visible as "comets" by ethidium bromide staining. Immediate DNA damage was much less in cultured stromal cells than in hemopoietic cells in BM aspirates. These results suggest that the observed differences in clonogenic survival could be partly due to differences in the type of the initial DNA damage between stromal cells and hemopoietic cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

DNA-damage detection in man after radiation exposure--the comet assay--its possible application for human biomonitoring.

The exposure of human beings to ionizing radiation is still of great concern to occupational and environmental medicine. The goal of this workshop is to identify a panel of biological markers that could be used in humans after exposure to ionizing radiation. The comet assay or single cell gel (SCG) assay is a new method that allows efficient determination of single-strand breaks (SSB) and double-strand breaks (DSB), as well as alkali-labile sites in the DNA of single cells. In order to demonstrate the practicability of the comet assay for the detection of DNA damage caused by low doses of ionizing radiation, we exposed human peripheral blood cells to radiation in vitro. The extent of DNA damage in blood cells irradiated with x-rays (0.05-1 Gy) was significantly increased above the control values even at 0.05 Gy and shows a clear dose-relationship. To investigate the repair kinetics for x-ray-induced DNA damage following acute and chronic (fractionated) irradiation, we exposed peripheral blood to 1 Gy and examined the tail moment at different time intervals. The effect of one acute dose is repaired within two h, whereas the effect of fractionated irradiation gives a totally different result. The tail moment of the initial damage increased indicating an accumulation of the damage, and the repair activity clearly decreased. Until now, there was no data available concerning DNA damage in vivo. For this reason, we explored patients subjected to radioiodine therapy as well as a Chernobyl liquidator.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Reduction of benzene toxicity by toluene.

BDF1 mice were exposed in inhalation chambers to benzene (900 ppm, 300 ppm) and/or toluene (500 ppm, 250 ppm) 6 hr per day, 5 days per week, for up to 8 weeks. Benzene alone induced a slight anemia after 4 and 8 weeks and a reduction of BFU-E and CFU-E numbers in the marrow. The coexposure to toluene reduced the degree of anemia. These results confirm previous studies where toluene was found to reduce benzene toxicity. This protective effect was most pronounced when DNA damage was studied in peripheral blood cells, bone marrow, and liver using the single cell gel (SCG) assay. With benzene alone, either with 300 or 900 ppm, a significant increase in DNA damage was detected in cells sampled from all three organs. Toluene alone did not induce a significant increase in DNA damage. The coexposure of benzene and toluene reduced the extent of DNA damage to about 50% of benzene alone. This result is considered a clear indication for a protective effect of toluene on the genetic toxicity of benzene.

Administration, Inhalation↗
PubMed1994

Early effects of benzene exposure in mice. Hematological versus genotoxic effects.

Female BDF1 mice were exposed to 100, 300 and 900 ppm benzene 6 h/day, 5 days/week, up to 8 weeks. Hematological studies included peripheral blood data, T4 and T8 lymphocyte counts in the blood and the spleen, hemopoietic stem and progenitor cell assays in the marrow (CFU-S, CFU-C, BFU-E, CFU-E). The single cell gel assay ("comet assay") was applied in parallel with cells from the peripheral blood, bone marrow, spleen and liver. The results showed minor changes in the stem and progenitor cells and the development of a slight anemia at 4 and 8 weeks, in agreement with reported data. New was the increase of the T4/T8 ratio in the peripheral blood (not in the spleen) at the end of the first week of exposure to 300 and 900 ppm. The results of the "comet assay" indicate a much higher sensitivity to this test system (strand breaks and alkali labile sites of DNA). The tail moment indicative of the damage to DNA increased as early as 3 days with 300 ppm in the peripheral blood cells. Furthermore, the liver cells did react to a much higher extent than the other cells tested. With 100 ppm significant changes were seen in the liver after 5 days, but not in the blood. The repair, studied 24 and 48 h after the end of the exposure, was almost complete after 5-day exposure period in the blood and the liver, but not after 4 weeks of exposure with 300 ppm in the blood, and 100 and 300 ppm in the liver.

Administration, Inhalation↗
PubMed1994

Does physical activity induce DNA damage?

The single cell gel electrophoresis (SCG) assay (comet assay) is a sensitive technique for detecting the presence of DNA strand-breaks and alkali-labile damage in individual cells. This technique was used to study peripheral blood cells from three volunteers after physical activity. The test subjects had to run on a treadmill and were checked for blood pressure and ECG, lactate concentration and creatine kinase activity. Blood was taken before and several times during and after the run. In a first multiple step test, the volunteers ran as long as possible with increasing speed. In a second test they had to run for 45 min with a fixed individual speed which was defined to ensure an aerobic metabolism. In the first test, the white blood cells of all subjects showed increased DNA migration in the SCG assay. The effect was seen 6 h after the end of the exercise and reached its maximum 24 h later. After 72 h, DNA migration decreased to about control level. The distribution of DNA migration among cells clearly demonstrated that the majority of white blood cells exhibited increased DNA migration and that the effect was not only due to a small fraction of damaged cells. From the same blood samples, blood cultures were set up to study a possible effect on the frequency of sister chromatid exchanges (SCE), another indicator for genotoxic effects. However, there was no significant increase in SCE in any of the cultures. In the second exercise, during aerobic metabolism, the effect on DNA migration was not seen.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗