[Frontiers in Bioscience E4, 1966-1974 , January 1, 2012]

[Frontiers in Bioscience E4, 1966-1974 , January 1, 2012]

N-Acetyltransferase 2 genotype, exfoliated urothelial cells and benzidine exposure

Qing-wen Ma¹, Guo-fang Lin¹, Ji-gang Chen², Wei-chao Guo¹, Yi-qiu Qin², Klaus Golka³, Jian-hua Shen¹

1Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China, ²Municipal Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Shanghai 200236, China, ³Leibniz-Institut fur Arbeitsforschung an der TU Dortmund - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, 44139 Dortmund, Germany

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Materials and methods: 3.1. Subjects; 3.2. Blood sampling and DNA extraction; 3.3. Genotyping of NAT2 genes; 3.4. Collection and classification of exfoliated cells; 3.5. Statistical analysis
4. Results
5. Discussion
6. Acknowledgements
7. References

1. ABSTRACT

Most studies report an association of the slow N-acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2) status with elevated bladder cancer risk. In this study, NAT2 genotypes and the decades-long records of Papanicolaou's grading of exfoliated urothelial cells in a former benzidine-exposed cohort of the Shanghai dyestuff industry (29 bladder cancer patients; 307 non-cancer cohort members, some of them presenting different grades of pre-malignant alterations of exfoliated urothelial cells) were investigated. The cohort members had been enrolled in regular medical surveillance since mid-1980s. No overall increase of slow NAT2 genotypes in the former benzidine-exposed bladder cancer patients was found, compared with non-diseased members of the same cohort. A lower presentation of the homozygous wild genotype NAT2 *4/*4 was observed in bladder cancer patients, compared with non-diseased members with averaged Papanicolaou's grading (APG) ³ II (OR=0.31, 95% CI 0.10-0.96, p=0.034) or with APG<II (OR=0.36,95% CI 0.12-1.10, p=0.063). Nevertheless, neither a protective influence of rapid NAT2 genotypes on bladder cancer risk nor on pre-malignant cytological alterations could be confirmed by the present data.