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Xiaobo Yang,^1* Jinping Zheng,^1,2* Yun Bai,¹ Fengjie Tian,² Jing Yuan,¹ Jianya Sun,³ Huashan Liang,³ Liang Guo,³ Hao Tan,¹ Weihong Chen,¹ Robert M. Tanguay,⁴ and Tangchun Wu¹

¹Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Ministry of Education Key Lab for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China; ²Department of Toxicology, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China; ³Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Taiyuan Steel and Iron Limited Co., Taiyuan, China; ⁴Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Genetics, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, and CREFSIP (Centre de Recherche sur la Fonction, la Structure et l'Ingénierie des Protéines), Université Laval, Québec, Canada

Abstract
Background: Hsp70, an early-response protein induced when organisms are confronted with simple or complicated environmental stresses, can act as either a cellular protector or a danger signal.

Objectives: The goal of this study was to evaluate levels of lymphocyte and/or plasma Hsp70 as biomarkers for assessing exposure response to complex coke oven emissions (COEs) .

Methods: We recruited 101 coke oven workers and determined levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure, urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP) , genotoxic damage by comet assay and micronuclei test, and other markers of damage, including plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) . These were compared to levels of lymphocyte (intracellular) and plasma (extracellular) Hsp70 using Western blots and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) , respectively.

Results: We observed a COEs-related dose-dependent increase in levels of DNA damage, micronuclei rate, MDA concentration, and LDH activity. Lymphocyte Hsp70 levels increased in the intermediate-exposure group (1.39 ± 0.88) but decreased in the high-exposure group (1.10 ± 0.55) , compared with the low-exposure group. In contrast, plasma Hsp70 levels progressively increased as the dose of exposure increased. Negative correlations were seen between lymphocyte Hsp70 levels and olive tail moment and LDH activity in the intermediate- and high-exposure groups. However, we observed positive correlations between plasma Hsp70 levels and LDH activity in the low and intermediate groups.

Conclusions: In workers exposed to COEs, high lymphocyte Hsp70 levels may provide protection and high plasma Hsp70 levels may serve as a danger marker. Larger validation studies are needed to establish the utility of Hsp70 as a response marker.

Key words: biomarker, coke oven workers, 1-hydroxypyrene, lymphocyte Hsp70, plasma Hsp70. Environ Health Perspect 115:1573–1577 (2007) . doi:10.1289/ehp.10104 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 24 August 2007]

Address correspondence to T. Wu, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, 2nd Building, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 13 Hangkong Rd., Wuhan, Hubei 430030, P. R. China. Telephone: 86 27 83692347. Fax: 86 27 83692560. E-mail: wut@mails.tjmu.edu.cn

*These authors contributed equally to this work.

We thank all individuals who volunteered to participate in this study and the medical personnel of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Taiyuan Steel & Iron Ltd Co. We also thank Q. Wei (University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center) for his critical review and scientific editing of the manuscript.

This research was supported by funds from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40590393 and 30525031) , the National Key Basic Research and Development Program (2002CB512905) , and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province (20041103) . We also acknowledge the contribution of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Canadian Institute of Health Research for a collaborative scientific exchange program to T.W. and R.M.T.

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 24 January 2007 ; accepted 24 August 2007.