JNSS 2020, 11(3-4):63-69 | DOI: 10.32725/jnss.2020.008

The impact of air pollution on genes in relation to respiratory morbidity in children

Radim J. Šrám^*, Miloš Velemínský

University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

Introduction: We studied the impact of air pollution on newborns from exposed district Karviná and control district of České Budějovice. We hypothesize that benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) can induce mutations in the DNA of these newborns, and we studied this possibility using DNA sequencing in those children at the age of 5 years.

Methods: DNA was isolated from buccal smears from 50 children who were born in the years 2013-2014, from each district. Mutations were followed in exon 11 of gene ALAS2, exon 15 of ZNF341 gene, and exon 1 of gene ORMDL3 by DNA sequencing.

Results: A pilot study verified our proposed procedure by the analysis of gene ALAS2, sequencing exon 11. We did not observe any mutation in any sequence.

Conclusions: It is obvious that our method was correct and primers were properly proposed. We did not observe any differences in the frequency of mutations in the exon 11 of gene ALAS2 between the groups of children from the districts of Karviná and České Budějovice. The sequence in genes ZNF341 and ORMDL3 should be further analyzed.

Keywords: Air pollution; Benzo[a]pyrene; Buccal smears; DNA sequencing; Gene ALAS2; Gene ORMDL3; Gene ZNF342; Respiratory morbidity

Grants and funding:

This work was financially supported by the company Hydro & Kov Třeboň and by the grant NV 18-09-00151 from the Czech Health Research Council.

Received: November 18, 2020; Accepted: December 11, 2020; Published: September 1, 2020  Show citation