IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i9p3276-d355219.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Comet Test in Saliva Leukocytes of Pre-School Children Exposed to Air Pollution in North Italy: The Respira Study

Author

Listed:
  • Claudia Zani

    (Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia, 11 Viale Europa, 25123 Brescia, Italy)

  • Elisabetta Ceretti

    (Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia, 11 Viale Europa, 25123 Brescia, Italy)

  • Ilaria Zerbini

    (Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia, 11 Viale Europa, 25123 Brescia, Italy)

  • Gaia Claudia Viviana Viola

    (Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia, 11 Viale Europa, 25123 Brescia, Italy)

  • Francesco Donato

    (Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia, 11 Viale Europa, 25123 Brescia, Italy)

  • Umberto Gelatti

    (Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia, 11 Viale Europa, 25123 Brescia, Italy)

  • Donatella Feretti

    (Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia, 11 Viale Europa, 25123 Brescia, Italy)

Abstract

Air pollution is a well-known problem for human health, especially for children living in highly polluted urban areas. This study aimed to assess the relationship between airborne pollutants concentration and biomarkers of DNA damage in the buccal mucosa cells of pre-school children. DNA damage was investigated with comet test in saliva leukocytes taken from sputum of 3- to 6-year-old children living in Brescia, Northern Italy, collected during two consecutive winter seasons (2012–2013). The daily levels of PM10, PM2.5, NO 2 , CO, SO 2 , benzene and O 3 in urban air were collected for the whole period. A questionnaire filled in by the children’s parents was used to evaluate indoor and outdoor exposure. DNA damage in saliva leukocytes was evaluated in 152 children and the means of tail intensity and visual score as DNA damage were 6.2 ± 4.3 and 182.1 ± 30.9, respectively. No demographic and indoor or outdoor exposure variable was associated with the two measures of DNA damage. No significant association between air pollution and DNA damage in children’s buccal leukocytes was found. In this study, the comet assay does not appear to be a valuable biomarker to detect DNA damage in children exposed to high levels of air pollutants, such as PM10, PM2.5 and NO 2 .

Suggested Citation

  • Claudia Zani & Elisabetta Ceretti & Ilaria Zerbini & Gaia Claudia Viviana Viola & Francesco Donato & Umberto Gelatti & Donatella Feretti, 2020. "Comet Test in Saliva Leukocytes of Pre-School Children Exposed to Air Pollution in North Italy: The Respira Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-11, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:9:p:3276-:d:355219
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/9/3276/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/9/3276/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Claudia Zani & Francesco Donato & Elisabetta Ceretti & Roberta Pedrazzani & Ilaria Zerbini & Umberto Gelatti & Donatella Feretti, 2021. "Genotoxic Activity of Particulate Matter and In Vivo Tests in Children Exposed to Air Pollution," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-13, May.
    2. Carla Russo & Mattia Acito & Cristina Fatigoni & Milena Villarini & Massimo Moretti, 2020. "B-Comet Assay (Comet Assay on Buccal Cells) for the Evaluation of Primary DNA Damage in Human Biomonitoring Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-14, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:9:p:3276-:d:355219. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.