Objective To investigate the characteristics of lymphocytes apoptosis in peripheral blood of coke-oven workers and its influential factors.
Methods In this study, a total of 343 coke-oven workers were included. 1-Hydroxypyrene (1-OHP) in worker's post-shift urine sample was determined by high performance liquid chromatography. Subjects were divided into low, medium or high exposure group according to the 1-OHP concentration. Lactic dehydrogenase(LDH) activity and malondialchehyche (MDA)concentration in plasma were determined using spectrophotometry. Lymphocyte apoptosis in peripheral blood was determined using flow cytometry.
Results The upper bound lymphocyte apoptosis rates of 95% subjects in the low exposure group (7.9%) was defined as the threshold to determine positive lymphocyte apoptosis. The positive rate of lymphocyte apoptosis in the low, medium and high exposure groups were increased with the exposure levels (chi-square trend test, P<0.01). The multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the medium exposure group, the high exposure group and the night work shift were the main risk factors of positive lymphocyte apoptosis (OR were 3.42, 8.58 and 5.05, P<0.05). The results of correlation analysis showed that lymphocyte apoptosis significantly correlated with urinary 1-OHP levels (r was 0.113, P<0.05).
Conclusion Occupational exposure of coke-oven result in an increase possibility of lymphocyte apoptosis, which relate to urinary 1-OHP level. Night work shift is a predictive factor of lymphocyte apoptosis occurrence.
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