Hexachlorobenzene exposure from contaminated DCPA in vegetable spraymen

Development of an adverse outcome pathway for cranio-facial malformations: A contribution from in silico simulations and in vitro data

Mixtures of substances sharing the same molecular initiating event (MIE) are supposed to induce additive effects. The proposed MIE for azole fungicides is CYP26 inhibition with retinoic acid (RA) local increase, triggering key events leading to craniofacial defects. Valproic acid (VPA) is supposed to imbalance RA-regulated gene expression trough histone deacetylases (HDACs) inhibition. The aim was to evaluate effects of molecules sharing the same MIE (azoles) and of such having (hypothetically) different MIEs but which are eventually involved in the same adverse outcome pathway (AOP). An in silico approach (molecular docking) investigated the suggested MIEs. Teratogenicity was evaluated in vitro (WEC). Abnormalities were modelled by PROAST software. The common target was the branchial apparatus. In silico results confirmed azole-related CYP26 inhibition and a weak general VPA inhibition on the tested HDACs. Unexpectedly, VPA showed also a weak, but not marginal, capability to enter the CYP 26A1 and CYP 26C1 catalytic sites, suggesting a possible role of VPA in decreasing RA catabolism, acting as an additional MIE. Our findings suggest a new more complex picture. Consequently two different AOPs, leading to the same AO, can be described. VPA MIEs (HDAC and CYP26 inhibition) impinge on the two converging AOPs.

Urinary porphyrin excretion in children is associated with exposure to organochlorine compounds

BACKGROUND

Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and other organochlorines induce porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) in animal studies. Evidence in humans, however, is contradictory. In neonates and adults from a population historically highly exposed to HCB (Flix, Catalonia, Spain), no relation with PCT or with porphyrin excretion was found.

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to analyze the association between urinary porphyrin excretion and exposure to HCB and other organochlorinated compounds in children 4 years of age.

METHODS

Our birth cohort included all newborns from Flix and the five surrounding towns (where no airborne pollution occurred). Among the 68 children with porphyrins we measured in cord blood, 52 children 4 years of age provided blood to measure organochlorine compounds, hair for methylmercury, and urine for porphyrin excretion pattern.

RESULTS

Quantitative porphyrin excretion was within the normal values. However, total porphyrins, coproporphyrin I (CPI), and coproporphyrin III (CPIII) adjusted to creatinine excretion increased with increasing levels of HCB, 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethylene (p,p'-DDE), 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethane (p,p'-DDT), and polychlorinated biphenyl congener 153 (PCB-153). We found no association with methylmercury. When we fitted multiple pollutant models, p,p'-DDE had the strongest association. We found these associations in children from both Flix and other towns, and they were independent of breast-feeding and of organochlorine and porphyrin levels at birth.

CONCLUSION

HCB at current levels did not induce porphyria or increase uroporphyrins. However, the increase of urinary coproporphyrins suggests an incipient toxic effect of the organochlorines, especially for p,p'-DDE, on the hepatic heme-synthesis pathway that differs from the major effects seen in PCT.

Environmental toxicology and health effects associated with hexachlorobenzene exposure

The synthetic industrial chemical hexachlorobenzene (HCB) is a white crystalline solid compound. The substance is a bioaccumulative, persistent, and toxic pollutant. Historically HCB was commonly used as a pesticide and fungicide. Although HCB production and use has ceased in many countries, the compound is still generated inadvertently, as a byproduct and/or impurity in the manufacture of various chlorinated compounds, and released into the environment. Hexachlorobenzene is ubiquitous in air, water, soil, and biological matrices, as well as in major environmental compartments. Exposure to this substance is a public health concern because of its association with a wide range of adverse health effects. The International Agency for Research on Cancer and the United States Environmental Protection Agency classify HCB as a probable human carcinogen. Although globally the consumption of HCB-contaminated food is the principal source of environmental exposure, exposure can also occur through the inhalation of HCB-contaminated air, by dermal contact, or through in utero exposure and breast milk. In addition to cancer, the human health effects associated with HCB exposure involve systemic impairment (thyroid, liver, bone, skin), as well as damage to the kidneys and blood cells and the immune, endocrine, developmental, and nervous systems. In this review, we discuss the sources of HCB and the potential for human exposure, as well as systemic, carcinogenic, and teratogenic health effects.

Serum organochlorines and urinary porphyrin pattern in a population highly exposed to hexachlorobenzene

BACKGROUND

Porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) is caused by hexachlorobenzene (HCB) in several species of laboratory mammals, but the human evidence is contradictory. In a study among adults of a population highly exposed to HCB (Flix, Catalonia, Spain), the prevalence of PCT was not increased. We aimed at analysing the association of individual urinary porphyrins with the serum concentrations of HCB and other organochlorine compounds in this highly exposed population.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study on total porphyrins was carried out in 1994 on 604 inhabitants of the general population of Flix, older than 14 years. Of them, 241 subjects (comprising a random sample and the subgroup with the highest exposure) were included for the present study. The porphyrin profile was determined by high-pressure liquid chromatography. Serum concentrations of HCB, as well as common organochlorine compounds, were determined by gas chromatography coupled to electron capture detection.

RESULTS

Coproporphyrin I (CPI) and coproporphyrin III (CPIII) were the major porphyrins excreted, while uroporphyrins I and III were only detected in 2% and 36% of the subjects respectively, and heptaporphyrins I and III in 1% and 6%, respectively. CPI and CPIII decreased with increasing HCB concentrations (p < 0.05). This negative association was not explained by age, alcohol, smoking, or other organochlorine compounds. No association was found between uroporphyrin I and III excretion, nor heptaporphyrin excretion, and HCB. CPIII increased with smoking (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

HCB exposure in this highly exposed population did not increase urinary concentrations of individual porphyrins.

Porphyrin status in aluminum foundry workers exposed to hexachlorobenzene and octachlorostyrene

The possible interference of hexachlorobenzene and octachlorostyrene (i.e., thermal byproducts from hexachloroethane in aluminum degassing) with porphyrin metabolism was investigated in exposed workers. Urine specimens from 9 male aluminum foundry workers (i.e., smelters) at 6 different companies and from 18 controls-matched for sex, age, residence, and socioeconomic status-were analyzed for total porphyrins and porphyrin isomers. Workers exposed to hexachlorobenzene and octachlorostyrene had a statistically significant increase in urinary total porphyrins, compared with controls (mean +/- standard deviation: 13.63 +/- 11.13 micromol/mol creatinine and 6.24 +/- 3.84 micromol/mol creatinine, respectively; p = .02). The authors attributed the results mainly to differences in excretion of coproporphyrins-notably coproporphyrin III. Erythrocyte uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase activity was similar in both groups. There was a high correlation between levels of hexachlorobenzene and octachlorostyrene, respectively, in plasma and urinary excretion of porphyrins; these findings, however, relied heavily on 1 subject for whom extreme values were obtained. The results indicated that occupational exposure to hexachlorobenzene and octachlorostyrene in aluminum degassing with hexachloroethane may affect porphyrin metabolism in a manner consistent with early secondary coproporphyrinuria-the first recognized step in the development of chronic hepatic porphyria. It was also noted that changes remained detectable some years after exposure ceased.

Hexachlorobenzene blood levels and the health status of men employed in the manufacture of chlorinated solvents

Men employed in chlorinated solvents manufacture were followed for 1--4 yr and found to have mean hexachlorobenzene blood levels of 311 ppb in 1974 (n = 50), 312 ppb in 1975 (n = 49), 160 ppb in 1976 (n = 49), and 170 ppb in 1977 (n = 44). Evaluation of urinary porphyrins and several other laboratory test results did not reveal evidence of porphyria cutanea tarda or other adverse effect associated with exposure to hexachlorobenzene. The hexachlorobenzene blood levels were strongly associated with years worked in the chlorinated solvents plant but poorly correlated with environmental measurements.

[Long time HCB exposition of rats: influence on the porphyrin excretion in the urine and on the cytochrome P-450 in the liver (author's transl)]

Adult female Wistar rats were fed with a diet containing 0.05% HCB. About the 55th day of the experiments an increase of porphyrin and its precursors (ALA and PBG) in the urine of the rats can be measured. In contrast the induction of the O-dealcylation reaction of 7-ethoxycoumarin could be already measured 2 days after starting with the HCB feeding. The inhibition of the enzymatic reaction by metyrapone, naphthoflavone, tetrahydrofurane or CO/O2 presents neither the typical pattern of the phenobarbital type nor the typical pattern of the benzpyrene type of cytochrome P-450. When the animals became porphyric (about the 55th day of the HCB exposure) no qualitative changes in the cytochrome P-450 pattern could be demonstrated. The relationship between the enzyme induction in the liver and the porphyria following the HCB application is still remaining unclear.

Environmental applications of mass spectrometry

The 1975 publications reporting organic and spark source mass spectrometric studies on environmental samples were compiled. Emphasis was placed on pollutants identified rather than methods and techniques used, and reports that did not incorporate data obtained by a technique's application were not included. The 272 reports cited vary from those reporting hundreds of identified pollutants to those describing the analysis of only one sample containing one or a few pollutants. The following sample types were not considered to be environmental samples: forensic samples, synthetic or 'standard' samples, and samples analyzed for drug residues.

[Hexachlorobenzene content in the whole blood of children (author's transl)]

In the spring of 1975, samples of whole blood of 98 male and 96 female children from Upper Bavaria, of 1-18 years of age, were examined for hexachlorbenzene (HCB) by gas chromatographic methods. All blood samples contained HCB ranging in concentration from 2,6 to 77,9 ppb. The HCB concentration shows a positive, hyperbolic correlation with age, tending toward a limiting value of 22 ppb for boys and 17 ppb for girls. The rate of increase in HCB concentration is inversely proportional to the square of the age. The concentration profile suggests that a substantial amount of HCB apparently starts to show up 9-10 months after birth (environmental effects?). No change in HBC concentration could be found in those children with infectious diseases. Furthermore, regional differences could not be detected, although the impression was that the HCB content was higher in children from rural areas than in children from urban areas.

Studies on the toxicology of hexachlorobenzene. I. Pharmacokinetics

In female rats dosed orally with 14C-hexachlorobenzene the extent of intestinal absorption of carbon-14 has been found to be dependent on the form of application. When the substance was given as a solution in oil about 80% of the dose administered was absorbed, but when given as an aqueous suspension only 6%. In animals treated with 14C-hexachlorobenzene dissolved in oil, all tissues contained radioactivity. Highest levels were found in adipose tissue, lowest in blood and muscle. Peak values of radioactivity were reached between 2 to 5 days after application. Elimination was studied after intraperitoneal application of 4 mg/kg14C-hexachlorobenzene dissolved in oil. Two weeks after administration, 34% of the radioactivity administered was recovered in the feces and 5% in urine. About 80% of carbon-14 excreted in feces and about 4% in urine was contained in the unchanged drug. This indicates that biodegradation of hexachlorobenzene in the rat is not insignificant. No radioactivity was detected in the expired air.

Hexachlorobenzene contamination: its effects in a Louisiana population

Plasma hexachlorobenzene (HCB) residues in a Louisiana population exposed through the transportation and disposal of chemical waste containing HCB averaged 3.6 plus or minus 4.3 parts per billion (ppb) in a sample of 86 people. The highest level was 345 ppb in a waste disposal facility worker while the highest level in the general population was 23 ppb. There was no evidence of cutaneous porphyria by history or skin examination. Males had significantly higher residues than females (4.71 vs. 2.79 ppb) but there were no age differences. A possible association between HCB residues and coproporphyrin and lactic dehydrogenase was found. Only 2 of 48 meals sampled were positive for HCB. There was a correlation between HCB levels in household dust and plasma levels. Perchloroethylene and carbon tetrachloride production workers had plasma HCB levels of up to 233 ppb.