The impact of long-term past exposure to elemental mercury on antioxidative capacity and lipid peroxidation in mercury miners.

Limited information is available on the effects of chronic mercury exposure in relation to the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). It is known from in vitro and in vivo studies that Hg can promote lipid peroxidation through promotion of free radical generation, and interaction with antioxidative enzymes and reduction of bioavailable selenium. The objective of the study was to test the hypothesis that long-term past occupational exposure to elemental Hg (Hg0) can modify antioxidative capacity and promote lipid peroxidation in miners.

Human cells (normal and ataxia telangiectasia) transfected with pR plasmid are hypersensitive to DNA strand-breaking agents.

Ataxia telangiectasia (AT) cells are known to be hypersensitive to ionizing radiations and to drugs such as bleomycin and epipodophyllotoxin VP16, a topoisomerase II poison. Both of these produce DNA double-strand breaks even if through different mechanisms. In this work we analyzed the sensitivity to bleomycin and to epipodophyllotoxin of AT cells after transfection with pR plasmid.