School of Environmental Engineering, University of Seoul, 163 Seoulsiripdae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 02504, South Korea.
Taean Environmental Health Center, Taean, Chungnam, 32148, South Korea.
Environ Pollut. 2020 Aug;263(Pt A):114607. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114607. Epub 2020 Apr 18.
The Hebei Spirit oil spill (HSOS) occurred on the west coast of South Korea (Taean county) on December 7, 2007, and studies revealed that exposure to the oil spill was associated with various adverse health issues in the inhabiting population. However, no studies evaluated the association between crude-oil exposure and epigenetic changes. This study aimed to investigate the HSOS exposure-associated longitudinal and cross-sectional variations in global DNA methylation (5-mc) and/or hydroxymethylation (5-hmc) and expression profiles of related genes in Taean cohort participants from 2009 (AH-baseline) and 2014 (AH-follow-up) relative to the reference group (AL). We measured global DNA 5-mc and 5-hmc levels and related gene expression levels in whole blood. We identified significant associations between HSOS exposure and AH-baseline-5-mc, AH-baseline-5-hmc, and AH-follow-up-5-hmc. HSOS exposure was associated with lower %5-mc content and higher %5-hmc content in the same individuals from both the cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. In addition, we found a strong correlation between 5-mc and DNMT3B expression, and between 5-hmc and TET1 expression. Our findings suggested that epigenetic changes are important biomarkers for HSOS exposure and that 5-hmc is likely to be more sensitive for environmental epidemiological studies.
2007 年 12 月 7 日，河北精神号溢油事件（HSOS）发生在韩国西海岸（泰安郡）。研究表明，该事件导致当地居民出现了各种健康问题。然而，目前尚无研究评估原油暴露与表观遗传变化之间的关系。本研究旨在调查 2009 年（AH 基线）和 2014 年（AH 随访）与参照组（AL）相比，泰安队列参与者中与 HSOS 暴露相关的全基因组 DNA 甲基化（5-mc）和/或羟甲基化（5-hmc）的纵向和横断面变化，以及相关基因的表达谱。我们在全血中测量了全基因组 DNA 的 5-mc 和 5-hmc 水平以及相关基因的表达水平。我们发现 HSOS 暴露与 AH 基线 5-mc、AH 基线 5-hmc 和 AH 随访 5-hmc 之间存在显著关联。在横断面和纵向研究中，HSOS 暴露与个体的 5-mc 含量降低和 5-hmc 含量升高有关。此外，我们发现 5-mc 与 DNMT3B 表达之间以及 5-hmc 与 TET1 表达之间存在很强的相关性。我们的研究结果表明，表观遗传变化是 HSOS 暴露的重要生物标志物，5-hmc 可能更适合环境流行病学研究。
