(Circulation. 1996;93:552-557.)
© 1996 American Heart Association, Inc.
Articles |
From the Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine, New York University Medical Center, New York, NY.
Correspondence to Arthur Penn, PhD, Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine, New York University Medical Center, Long Meadow Road, Tuxedo, NY 10987.
| Abstract |
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Methods and Results Cockerels inhaled butadiene (20 ppm; 16 weeks) or were injected biweekly with NNK (10 mg/kg, 16 weeks). Control cockerels were exposed to filtered air or were injected with the NNK solvent dimethylsulfoxide. Plaque incidence, prevalence, location, and size were determined double-blind. NNK had no significant effect on any of these measurements. In contrast, butadiene elicited a statistically significant increase in plaque size comparable to that seen after steady-state exposure to ETS from 5 cigarettes.
Conclusions (1) This study represents the first time that a single cigarette smoke component has been demonstrated to accelerate arteriosclerosis, at a dose that is environmentally relevant. (2) The plaque-promoting components of ETS may reside in the vapor phase. (3) The cockerel model should be valuable in understanding the mechanism underlying the reported increases in heart disease deaths among black workers in the butadiene rubber industry.
Key Words: arteriosclerosis butadiene sidestream smoke
| Introduction |
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Experiments have demonstrated that exposure to carcinogens present in cigarette smoke profoundly affects the origin and development of both lung cancer and heart disease. Many of these studies have concentrated on individual PAH carcinogens, eg, benzo(a)pyrene, present in the particulate (tar) fraction of cigarette smoke. These compounds are metabolized via enzymes of the cytochrome P-450 system to mutagenic and carcinogenic forms. Previously, we demonstrated that weekly injections of PAH carcinogens, including benzo(a)pyrene and DMBA, at subtumorigenic doses, accelerate arteriosclerotic plaque development in the abdominal aortas of cockerels without causing any increases in plaque numbers.4 5 6 We found that a DMBA dosage as low as 5 mg/kg weekly was sufficient to elicit a statistically significant increase in plaque size compared with control plaques.4 Noncarcinogenic PAHs, eg, anthracene, were ineffective.
PAH carcinogens are metabolized by arteries of rabbits, chickens, and pigeons7 8 9 10 and by cultured human fetal arterial smooth muscle cells.11 A recent study demonstrated that benzo(a)pyrene is metabolized by rat aortas and suggested that this may mimic events occurring in people exposed to cigarette smoke.12 However, concerns about dose have led to the question of whether PAH carcinogens are responsible for the plaque-promoting activity of cigarette smoke in vivo. For example, even when these agents were administered to cockerels at subtumorigenic doses, the concentrations were still orders of magnitude higher than those at which these agents are found individually in the tar fraction.13 In the experiments reported here, we asked whether the in vivo plaque-promoting effects of ETS can be attributed to components other than PAH carcinogens. Cockerels were exposed to one of two prominent ETS components: NNK, a tar fraction component of ETS, or 1,3 butadiene, a vapor phase component of ETS.
The tobacco-specific (particulate fraction) N-nitrosamine, NNK, is a potent carcinogen in rats when administered at high doses.14 To the best of our knowledge, there are no data that implicate NNK in the development of arteriosclerotic heart disease.
Butadiene (MW=54.09) is a colorless, mildly pungent gas, poorly
soluble
in water, that is widely used in the synthetic rubber industry.
Butadiene is also a component of automotive exhaust and of the vapor
phase of ETS,
400 µg per cigarette.15 The United
States produces approximately one fourth of the world's total
industrial butadiene output of more than 5x106
metric tons per year. Butadiene was identified as a hazardous air
pollutant in the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments.16 For
butadiene, the TLV-the maximum concentration of an airborne
contaminant to which a worker can be exposed-is 10 ppm. Butadiene
has been reported to be carcinogenic in mice at levels as low as 6.25
ppm17 and in rats at high levels (1000 to 8000
ppm).18 Direct data demonstrating that butadiene is a
human carcinogen are largely lacking. Butadiene is metabolized via
cytochrome P-450 2E1.19 Most published investigations have
failed to identify statistically significant increases in specific
disease-associated mortality in workers due to butadiene exposures.
One exception is arteriosclerotic heart disease
among black men in the butadiene rubber industry. The standardized
mortality ratio for black production workers is 1.48 and for
black maintenance workers is 1.76.20 There are no
animal studies that implicate butadiene in
arteriosclerotic plaque development.
The results presented here show clearly that butadiene, at only twice the TLV, stimulates plaque development to the same extent as a moderately high dose of ETS. NNK at a similar relative dose is without effect on plaque development. The results cast further doubt on the atherogenicity of cigarette tar components in vivo and point to vapor phase components as likely plaque-promoting agents in ETS.
| Methods |
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Exposures
NNK
Twenty white leghorn cockerels
received eight biweekly
intramuscular injections (10 mg/kg) of NNK (Chemsyn) dissolved in DMSO
(Sigma) starting at 6 weeks of age, according to protocols described
previously.4 5 6 Ten control cockerels
received biweekly
injections of DMSO.
Butadiene
Simultaneous
inhalation exposures were carried out
in stainless steel 1.3-m3 dynamic exposure
chambers.21 Eight 15-week-old cockerels in each of
four chambers were exposed (6 hours per day, 5 days per week, 16 weeks)
to a steady state concentration of 20 ppm butadiene (>99.0% purity,
Matheson Gases). The butadiene was mixed continually with filtered
HEPA, which entered the chambers at a rate of 300 L/min (ie, about 14
air changes per hour). Eight age-matched control cockerels in an
adjacent chamber were exposed to the same filtered HEPA without the
butadiene. Butadiene concentrations were measured hourly during the
daily exposures with a MIRAN 1A infrared gas analyzer (Foxboro
Analytical). The analytical wavelength was 11.1 µ, and all readings
were compared with a previously prepared calibration curve.
Plaque Analysis
After the animals were euthanatized with
Nembutol, at 22 weeks
of age in the NNK study and at 31 to 32 weeks of age in the butadiene
study, the distal 50 mm of each abdominal aorta was fixed and processed
as described previously.2 3 4 Plaque
location, frequency,
and size (plaque index equals plaque cross-sectional area divided
by artery wall inner circumference multiplied by 100) were determined
for all animals. A PC-based morphometry system using the Bioquant
System IV software program described previously2 3
was
used to generate plaque index data in the NNK study. A
Macintosh-based morphometry system using the NIH BioImage 1.55
software package was used to generate the plaque index data in the
butadiene study. The same individual coded and processed the tissues
for both studies. Two people determined plaque index values in a
double-blinded fashion (a different person for each study).
Data Analysis
As reported in all our previous studies, the
measured plaque
sizes fit log-normal
distributions.2 3 4 5 6
The logarithms
of exposed and control plaque index values were arranged according to
increasing value and plotted on log-probability coordinates. Linear
regression lines were calculated by least squares analysis and
drawn for each data set. ANCOVA was used to test for differences
between the two regression lines.22
| Results |
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The plaque size results with NNK were clear and unexpected. NNK was
totally ineffective at augmenting plaque development. Mean plaque index
values exceeded median values for both NNK-injected cockerels and
DMSO-injected controls (Fig 1
). Both skewed data sets
fit log-normal distributions. This was consistent with our
previous
findings2 3 4 5 6
(also see butadiene results below).
The logarithms of 76 control (DMSO) and 126 NNK-exposed samples were
ranked by increasing value and plotted on log-probability
coordinates (Fig 2
). For each regression line, the
linear correlation coefficients (R) exceeded .985. The two
regression lines were tested for differences by ANCOVA. The lines had
the same slope (0.45), and there were no significant differences in
plaque sizes in the two groups (F=0.38; P<.537). These
results show that repeated injections with a carcinogen that is
prominent in the tar fraction of ETS have no effect on development of
arteriosclerotic plaques.
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In contrast, butadiene exposures had a striking effect on plaque size.
When plaque index values were determined on a
segment-by-segment basis, the values were larger for
butadiene-exposed animals (Fig 3A
) than for the
corresponding air controls (Fig 3B
). In Fig 4
,
the
logarithms of 46 air control plaque index values and the 210 butadiene
plaque index values are plotted on log-probability coordinates, as
described above. The 95% confidence limits for the slope of each
regression line are also presented. The R values for
each line were >.98. There is no overlap anywhere between these two
regression lines, which have different slopes (0.49 versus 0.61). The
difference in plaque size between the butadiene and air regression
groups is highly significant (F=57.24; P<.0001). The mean
plaque index of the butadiene group (ie, the median value before
log-normal transformation) is
50% greater than the mean plaque
index of the air controls. These results are both qualitatively and
quantitatively similar to those obtained in our initial ETS (5
cigarette) study.2 Thus, daily exposure of young outbred
animals to butadiene at a level only 2 times higher than the TLV is
sufficient to markedly accelerate arteriosclerotic
plaque development.
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| Discussion |
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Two sets of results are presented. First, we demonstrate that a prominent particulate fraction ETS component, NNK, has no effect on plaque development. NNK is a tobacco-specific nitrosamine, which at high doses is a potent carcinogen in rodents.14 27 28 29 In vitro findings have strongly implied that NNK behaves similarly in humans.30 31 However, in all these studies, the effective doses of NNK were far higher than the actual doses supplied during the combustion of cigarettes. The dose selected for the experiments described here, 5 mg/kg, is in the range described for optimal formation of the promutagenic O-6 methylguanine adduct in rat lungs.32 The injection protocols used in this study for NNK closely matched those we used previously to demonstrate that some PAH carcinogens, including benzo(a)pyrene, which, like NNK and butadiene is a component of cigarette smoke, can markedly accelerate plaque development.4 5 6 Significant acceleration of plaque development by benzo(a)pyrene was evident when as few as 6 treated and 6 control animals were compared.6 In the experiments described here, 20 NNK-treated and 10 control cockerels were examined. Thus, NNK, tested in a proven protocol for the promotion of arteriosclerosis, does not accelerate plaque development.
Second, in contrast to the results from the NNK study, those from the butadiene study demonstrate that this vapor phase component of ETS accelerates arteriosclerotic plaque development. Here, butadiene effectively promoted plaque development at a concentration only twice the TLV. This represents the first time that a single cigarette smoke component has been shown to directly affect the development of heart disease at doses that are within an order of magnitude of those found in cigarette smoke. Butadiene is far more concentrated in sidestream smoke than either benzo(a)pyrene or NNK. In ETS from 1R4F cigarettes, the model moderate tar- and nicotine-filtered cigarette used in our previous studies,2 3 the butadiene concentration is 1000 times that of NNK and 2500 times that of benzo(a)pyrene.13
At best, butadiene has proven to be a very weak carcinogen. The 20-ppm dose of butadiene effective here as a promoter of plaque development in cockerels stands in strong contrast to the butadiene doses of 1000 ppm and higher that are necessary to induce tumor formation in rats.17 Evidence from occupational studies that butadiene may be a human carcinogen is very limited. There is one published epidemiological study linking deaths of black male workers from arteriosclerotic heart disease to chronic occupational exposure to butadiene.20 For black male production workers in styrene-butadiene manufacturing plants in the United States from 1943 to 1982, the standardized mortality ratio for deaths from arteriosclerotic heart disease was 1.47. For white male production workers in the same facilities, the standardized mortality ratio was 0.91. Among black men in maintenance jobs, the standardized mortality ratio for arteriosclerotic heart disease deaths jumped to 1.76, nearly twice the value for white maintenance workers in the same facilities. The results presented here provide direct experimental support for these epidemiological observations.
There is also a recent report that a subset of the black population exhibits polymorphisms in the cytochrome P-450 1A1 gene (CYP1A1) and that these may be associated with an increased susceptibility to lung cancer.33 CYP1A1 metabolizes PAH carcinogens, including some in ETS. CYP2E1 metabolizes butadiene in human and rodent livers.19 There are no reports that we know of in which (1) genetic polymorphisms in human CYP2E1 have been investigated or (2) the enzyme has been identified in human arteries. However, the existence of genetic polymorphisms in at least one member of the cytochrome P-450 family, in a population with an increased standardized mortality ratio for arteriosclerotic heart disease that is also exposed occupationally to butadiene, suggests that the cockerel model system can be exploited to understand the mechanism(s) underlying this butadiene effect.
The cockerel/rooster model is one of the few sensitive and
discriminating animal models for studying nondietary environmental
contributions to the development of
arteriosclerosis. Among cigarette smoke
constituents tested previously, benzo(a)pyrene, like butadiene,
accelerates plaque development,13 whereas carbon monoxide,
even at relatively high levels (200 ppm) is without
effect.34 We recently published two sets of studies on
acceleration of plaque development resulting from exposure to
sidestream cigarette smoke.2 3 In the first of these,
in
which eight cockerels per chamber were exposed to steady state
sidestream smoke from 5 cigarettes, the steady state exposure chamber
butadiene levels were calculated to be
0.7 ppm. Assuming 50%
retention of inhaled sidestream smoke during each 6-hour exposure
period, the butadiene body burden to each cockerel at the end of each
exposure was 105 µg/kg. In contrast, the body burden after a 6-hour
exposure to 20 ppm butadiene is 28 times higher.
Although butadiene and NNK are each metabolized at different rates and
by different components of the cytochrome P-450 system, a comparison of
the carcinogenicity, plaque-promoting potential, and concentration
in ETS of these compounds can be instructive. In the studies reported
here, 80 days of inhalation exposure to butadiene resulted in a total
dose of
240 mg/kg. In carcinogenesis studies with female mice, the
lowest effective dose of butadiene was 6.25 ppm, 6 hours per day, 5
days per week, for 2 years.17 For a 25-g mouse, this
translates to a total butadiene dose of
500 mg (ie, on a milligram
per kilogram basis, 80 times greater than the cockerel dose). In rats,
the lowest effective carcinogenic dose of butadiene is 1000 ppm, 6
hours per day, 5 days per week, for 2 years.17 For a 250-g
rat, this translates to a total butadiene dose of
75 g (ie, on a
milligram per kilogram basis, 1000 times greater than the cockerel
dose). In carcinogenesis studies with F344 rats, a total dose of 34
mg/kg NNK over a 2-year period produced lung tumors in 20% of the
animals.35 A total dose of 136 mg/kg over the same time
period yielded lung tumors in 90% of the animals. In the NNK studies
reported here with cockerels, the total dose over a 16-week period was
intermediate (80 mg/kg) between those two doses, yet NNK had no effect
on plaque number or size.
The lack of a plaque-promoting effect of the tar component, NNK, is consistent with results from plaque promotion studies with whole tar extract. Weekly injections (25 mg/kg) of acetonedry ice extracts of cigarette tar into cockerels were ineffective at accelerating plaque development (Penn et al, manuscript in preparation). Since butadiene is found in such high concentration in ETS relative to NNK and benzo(a)pyrene, it is probably one of the compounds most responsible for the arteriosclerotic plaquepromoting potential of ETS. However, literally thousands of compounds have been identified in the gas and particulate fractions of cigarette smoke, both sidestream and mainstream.36 Thus, other compounds besides butadiene must contribute to the plaque-promoting qualities of ETS. Our NNK and tar injection studies strongly suggest that the bulk of the plaque-promoting factors in ETS may be in the vapor phase.
In the experiments reported here, butadiene exposure levels, while higher than those present in sidestream smoke from one cigarette, were still only twice the occupational TLV. This, combined with the elevated standardized mortality ratio for death from arteriosclerotic heart disease among black production and maintenance workers in the butadiene rubber industry, strongly suggests that the TLV for butadiene may have to be lowered.
| Selected Abbreviations and Acronyms |
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| Acknowledgments |
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Received June 8, 1995; revision received August 21, 1995; accepted September 25, 1995.
| References |
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