Polychlorinated biphenyls in serum, liver and adipose tissue of subjects with hepatocellular carcinoma living in a highly polluted area Claudia Zani a , Umberto Gelatti a,⇑ , Francesco Donato a , Michela Capelli b , Nazario Portolani c , Roberto Bergonzi d , Pietro Apostoli d a Institute of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Brescia, Viale Europa 11, 25123 Brescia, Italy b Post-graduate School of Public Health, University of Brescia, Viale Europa 11, 25123 Brescia, Italy c Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Brescia, Viale Europa 11, 25123 Brescia, Italy d Institute of Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene, University of Brescia, Viale Europa 11, 25123 Brescia, Italy highlights " 101 HCC cases living in highly PCBs-polluted area were enrolled. " PCBs were measured in serum, liver and fat of 59 cases who underwent surgery. " Close correlations were found among three tissues. " Lipid-adjusted serum PCBs level is a valid measure of PCBs body burden. article info Article history: Received 11 July 2012 Received in revised form 20 November 2012 Accepted 15 December 2012 Available online 17 January 2013 Keywords: Environmental pollution Incident cases Tissue levels Highly industrialized area Lipid-adjusted PCBs concentrations abstract Brescia (North Italy) is located in a highly industrialized area with diffuse environmental pollution by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and with a high incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We aimed to investigate the concentration of PCBs congeners in serum, liver and adipose tissue of patients with HCC living in this area. We enrolled prospectively 101 HCC incident cases. Lipid-adjusted PCBs concentration of single congen- ers and total PCBs concentration, computed as the sum of 24 PCBs congeners, were measured in the serum of all subjects and in the liver and abdominal fat of 59 HCC cases undergoing surgery. A high correlation was found between PCBs serum and liver (Spearman r = 0.79), serum and fat (r = 0.91), and liver and fat (r = 0.75) concentrations. Serum PCBs concentration in HCC patients did not vary according to demographical, clinical or epidemiological variables, apart from age, as PCBs concentra- tion increased linearly with the subject’s age. This study confirms that serum lipid-adjusted PCBs concen- tration is a valid measure of PCBs body storage and is highly correlated with PCBs concentration detected in other biological samples. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a group of chemical com- pounds classified as probably carcinogenic to humans (2A) by IARC (IARC, 1978). Although they do not show genotoxic activity, they induce cancer in animals, especially in mammals, possibly through enzyme induction. PCBs induce various P-450 enzyme activities, especially CYP1A1 and CYP1B, by binding with Ah receptor (IARC, 1978). There is no conclusive evidence, however, that PCBs can cause cancer in humans at the levels usually found in the environ- ment (Ross, 2004; US EPA, 2006). The liver is a target organ of PCBs: animals exposed to PCBs show biochemical changes indicative of hepatocellular damage (AST, ALT) and liver dysfunction (altered levels of lipids) and of fat liver deposition (ATSDR, 2000). Similarly, hepatotoxic effects were found in humans with high PCBs intake in the acute intoxica- tion incidents of Yusho and Yucheng (ATSDR, 2000). The province of Brescia is a highly industrialized area, and a chemical factory that produced PCBs and other organochlorines from 1930 to 1984 is located in Brescia, the main town in the area. Previous studies showed that soil, surface water and locally produced food, including animal products, were polluted by 0045-6535/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2012.12.046 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 030 3717692; fax: +39 030 3717688. E-mail addresses: zani@med.unibs.it (C. Zani), gelatti@med.unibs.it (U. Gelatti), donato@med.unibs.it (F. Donato), mcapelli.53055@studenti.unibs.it (M. Capelli), portolan@med.unibs.it (N. Portolani), robertobergonzi@hotmail.com (R. Bergonzi), apostoli@med.unibs.it (P. Apostoli). Chemosphere 91 (2013) 194–199 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Chemosphere journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere