Christian Laurent

Monitoring of occupational exposure to epichlorohydrin by genetic effects and hemoglobin adducts

The present work is focused on the determination of in vivo doses and studies of genetic effects in workers exposed to epichlorohydrin (ECH). The studied endpoints were hemoglobin (Hb) adducts, frequencies of hprt mutants, micronuclei in cytochalasin B blocked binucleated lymphocytes, sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) and high frequency cells (HFC). Blood samples were collected from office clerks and ECH exposed factory workers at an industrial plant in Germany. The workers were exposed to 0.11-0.23 ppm ECH in the air 45 h per week and to 0.2-2.6 ppm for 3 h per week. Some Swedish non-exposed subjects were also used for Hb adduct measurements. The genetic data, HFC and SCE, showed a significant difference between exposed and unexposed donors. In contrast to earlier studies on SCE, no impact of smoking was observed. Effects on micronuclei were on the borderline of significance, whereas there was no effect for HPRT mutants. The average Hb adduct level was higher in exposed than in non-exposed donors, although the difference was only significant when the exposed group was compared to Swedish controls. Smoking gave significantly increased adduct levels. The absence of significant correlations between individual data for Hb adducts and genetic effects, may be explained by the different periods of time covered by the responses in these endpoints. Whereas Hb adducts reflect the exposure during up to 4 months (i.e. the life span of human erythrocytes), the SCE, and particularly the HFC, seem to accumulate for years in a long-lived fraction of T-lymphocytes without DNA repair. Thus, the adduct data does not reflect the exposure backwards in time unless it can be shown that exposure conditions have remained unchanged. The origin of the background adduct levels in non-smoking control persons is at present not known.

Inter-laboratory comparison of cytogenetic endpoints for the biomonitoring of radiological workers.

PURPOSE The evaluation of different cytogenetic endpoints of radiation damage for the biomonitoring of contract workers temporarily employed at nuclear power plants. MATERIALS AND METHODS Blood samples from six donors were irradiated in vitro with doses ranging from 0.1 to 2Gy 60Co gamma-rays. Compared were a conventional analysis for dicentrics, the conventional micronucleus (MN) assay, the centromere micronucleus assay using p82H and an alphaAllCen pancentromeric probe, and tricolour FISH with chromosome 2, 4 and 8 DNA probes for the scoring of translocations. RESULTS Agreement in the number of MN between Giemsa-and propidium iodine fluorescence-stained preparations was obtained. The control samples showed higher centromere positivity for the MN after FISH with the p82H probe compared with the alphaAllCen probe. The MN results with both probes showed a slight but systematic increase in the number of centromere-positive MN with dose, indicating that radiation, although principally clastogenic, also has aneuploidogenic properties. The values of the genomic translocation frequency (FG) derived from the observed translocation frequencies were systematically higher than the dicentric yields. Comparing the sensitivity of the different methods with restriction of the scoring time to 1 day for biomonitoring purposes, the centromere micronucleus assay had the lowest dose detection limit (0.1 to 0.2 Gy). CONCLUSION This study shows that at present only the centromere micronucleus assay can combine high sensitivity with a reasonable scoring time for the biomonitoring of relatively large populations.

Superconductivity fluctuations in Bi(Pb) based granular ceramics superconductors: evidence for fractal behavior

We report precise measurements of the electrical resistivity in three different Bi(Pb) based granular ceramics superconductors. We show that a single critical exponent (5/6) describes the superconductivity fluctuations. Such a critical exponent indicates a fractal behavior of the superconducting path. Our results thus indicate a strict two dimensional fluctuation percolation set (below the superconductivity onset temperature 195 K down toTc), and provide some proof for Tarascon et al. “shell conductivity path” hypothesis. We estimate the shell thickness to be of the order of 10 Å.

Cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of extracellular generated singlet oxygen in human lymphocytes in vitro

The induction of sister-chromatid exchanges (SCE) together with the proliferation rate index (PRI) were studied in human lymphocytes in vitro after treatment with singlet oxygen. When produced outside the cells, singlet oxygen can increase the duration of the cellular cycle as measured by an enhancement of the differences between the proliferation rate indexes of the control and the treated cells. A dose-dependent increase in the SCE rate per chromosome was also detected after contact between the singlet oxygen and lymphocytes.

Probing conductivity fluctuations in high critical temperature superconductors

Abstract We comment and discuss published data on the electrical resistivity of high temperature superconductors in order to extract the dimensionality of superconductivity “critical” fluctuations. We present arguments which indicate that observation of three temperature regimes is indeed possible: a scaling regime close to T c and two regimes in the mean field region. In each regime, dominant scattering mechanisms can be different.

Spontaneous complete remission and recovery of donor haemopoiesis without GVHD after relapse and apparent marrow graft rejection in poor-prognosis myelodysplastic syndrome

We report a patient with poor‐prognosis myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) after successful treatment of lymphoma, who was given an allogeneic BMT, engrafted and achieved complete remission, but later had a relapse of his MDS with complete disappearance of donor haemopoiesis. After two episodes of CMV pneumonia and continued prophylactic use of ganciclovir thereafter, he experienced a spontaneous complete disappearance of all signs of MDS, including myelofibrosis, and a complete return to donor haemopoiesis. This case is the first one to suggest a graft‐versus‐leukaemia effect (GVL) in MDS patients. It depicts the complex relationship between GVL, graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD) and graft rejection. It could also constitute a clinical illustration of the possible antileukaemic effect of CMV infection and its treatment with ganciclovir.

High temperature crossover in paraconductivity of granular Y1Ba2Cu3O7-y

We have examined the deviation from linearity of the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity of a YBaCuO ceramics. We have observed at high temprature a crossover behavior toward a logarithmic temperature dependence at lower temperature. It seems relevant to attribute the origin of such a term to a pair breaking mechanism contribution, thus to give a lower bound to the existence of superconductivity fluctuations onset temperature. Our findings also implies that carriers are bosons aboveTc.

Translocation frequencies measured in patients one year after radioactive iodine therapy for thyrotoxicosis.

Purpose : To investigate the incidence of translocations induced by iodine-131 therapy in thyrotoxicosis patients 1 year after the administration of the radiolabelled compound. Materials and methods : Tricolour FISH with whole-chromosome-specific probes for chromosomes 2, 4 and 8 was used for scoring translocations. From the genomic translocation frequencies, derived using the Lucas formula, equivalent whole-body doses were calculated, based on the in vitro 60 Co γ-ray dose-response curve. Results : A total of 101 translocations were observed in 4864 metaphases, 63% being of the two-way type. In the control group used for obtaining dose-response data, nine translocations were observed in 5278 metaphases, 55% being two-way translocations. No correlation was found between the observed frequency of translocations and administered radioactivity. Using the in vitro dose-response, an estimated average dose for the group of nine patients of 0.79 ±0.22Gy was obtained. Compared with frequencies following the assumption that the involvement of a particular chromosome in a two-break exchange-type aberration is proportional to its DNA content, chromosome 4 was more frequently involved and chromosomes 2 and 8 less frequently involved in chromosomal rearrangements. Conclusion : This study shows that 131 I therapy for thyrotoxicosis patients induced translocations, especially in chromosome 4, which could be detected 1 year after the administration of the radiolabelled compound.