Acquired susceptibility to environmental disease

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1: Int J Hyg Environ Health 2001 Oct;204(1):17-22

Life style factors and acquired susceptibility to environmental disease.

Au WW.

Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, University of Texas

Medical Branch, 700 Harborside Drive, Galveston, TX 77555-1110, USA.

william.au@...

Multifactorial risk factors are responsible for many diseases. They can be

broadly categorized as environmental, genetic and life style factors. Much

attention has been focused on the first two categories, e.g. the

identification of environmental toxicants/carcinogens and the elucidation of

genetic susceptibility to disease. Life style risk factors such as aging,

poor nutrition, infection and exposure to toxicants can also increase

susceptibility to illnesses. These life style factors can therefore be

considered to cause acquired susceptibility for increased risk for

environmental disease. Among Egyptians, infection with the parasite,

Schistosoma, is the primary risk factor for bladder cancer and the risk is

enhanced by exposure to mutagenic chemicals. We have shown that inheritance

of susceptible metabolizing genes that can increase body burden of mutagenic

chemicals enhances the risk. We have also hypothesized that chronic exposure

to mutagenic chemicals causes cellular abnormalities that can reduce the

capacity of cells to repair DNA damage and thus increase the risk for

environmental disease. We have used a challenge assay to show that cells from

cigarette smokers and from populations exposed to uranium, butadiene and

pesticides have abnormal DNA repair responses compared to matched controls.

On the other hand, the response is normal in workers exposed to very low

concentrations of butadiene and benzene, and in mothers who had children with

birth defects. This suggests that exposure to high enough concentrations of

certain mutagens can cause acquired susceptibility in human populations. The

acquired susceptibility is expected to interact with environmental factors

and with genetic susceptibility to increase risk for environmental disease.

PMID: 11725340 [PubMed - in process]