Exfoliated buccal and microdissected lung cell expression of antioxidant enzymes.

Introduction: An exfoliated buccal cell biomarker assay for antioxidant gene transcript levels was used to measure inter-tissue concordance with lung, and inter-subject variability in a lung cancer case-control study.

Methods: First, qualitative RNA-specific RT-PCR was used to compare expression in exfoliated buccal cells with that in laser microdissected lung tissue remote from the tumor from 14 individuals providing both specimens.

Results: There was complete [100% for quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), and superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1)], or predominant [85.