Genotoxic biomarkers in employees of pathomorphological laboratories working with formaldehyde (systematic review)

Abstract

Introduction. A systematic review and analysis of literature on genotoxic examinations of individuals occupationally exposed to formaldehyde vapors (FAV) when working in pathomorphological laboratories of medical institutions has been performed. Formaldehyde is classified by the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer as a class I carcinogen. Many studies have been published concerning testification of the genotoxic damage of pathomorphological laboratory personnel working with formaldehyde, identification using various biomonitoring cytogenetic methods, in particular, the micronucleus test in peripheral blood lymphocytes and buccal epithelial cells, a chromosomal aberrations test, and the DNA comet assay.Material and methods. Literature was searched until December 2019 using the MedLine / PubMed database of scientific literature (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed). Key search terms included formaldehyde laboratory micronuclei, formaldehyde laboratory chromosomal aberration, or formaldehyde laboratory DNA comet. Full-text articles published in English in journals with assigned DOIs were considered.Results. All studies reported the presence of FAV in the workplace, while in only half of the cases the level of formaldehyde was not higher than the maximum permissible values. The average exposure to formaldehyde over an 8-hour working day was 0.79 ± 0.43 mg/m3. All studies reported the presence of an increased level of the studied cytogenetic biomarkers compared to controls. A total analysis of the data showed more than a 2.5-fold excess in the level of micronuclei in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of laboratory workers compared with the control groups (8.15 ± 2.57 ‰ vs. 3.56 ± 1.15 ‰; p < 0.05), and more than a 5-fold excess in case of the level of micronuclei in buccal epithelial cells (0.83 ± 0.09 ‰ vs. 0.16 ± 0.01 ‰; p < 0.05).Conclusion. Thus, pathomorphological laboratory personnel exposed to FAV is at potential risk to life and health from the long-term impact of genotoxic eff