What do the Genotoxic Health Effects tell us about the Cancer Causing Potential of Diesel Exhaust?
Much of the information regarding genotoxicity has been obtained using diesel exhaust particles or extracts of diesel exhaust particles. Diesel exhaust particles or their extracts are mutagenic in bacteria (Salmonella typhimurium and E. coli) and in several mammalian cell systems (Chinese hamster ovary, V79, BALB/c3T3, L5718Y mouse lymphoma, human lymphoblasts). Diesel exhaust particles or their extracts induce chromosome aberrations, aneuploidy, and sister chromatid exchange in rodent and human cells in culture. Diesel exhaust particles and their extracts are also capable of inducing cell transformation. Diesel exhaust particles or their extracts can also produce superoxide and peroxide radicals and inhibit the antioxidant enzymes responsible for radical scavenging. Diesel exhaust particles have also been shown to cause an increase in 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) adducts in calf thymus DNA in vitro and in lung DNA from mice exposed in vivo by intratracheal instillation. Both diese
