Maria Paola Bigatti

Publications (2)6.65 Total impact

• Article: Combined analysis of chromosomal aberrations and glutathione S-transferase M1 and T1 polymorphisms in pathologists occupationally exposed to formaldehyde.

  Alfredo Santovito, Tiziana Schilirò, Sergio Castellano, Piero Cervella, Maria Paola Bigatti, Giorgio Gilli, Roberto Bono, Massimiliano DelPero
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  ABSTRACT: The formaldehyde (FA) genotoxic potential in occupationally exposed individuals is conflicting. A relevant indoor-air FA pollution was found in hospitals and scientific institutions where FA is used as a bactericide and tissue preservative. In the present study, we evaluated the frequency of chromosomal aberrations (CAs) in peripheral blood lymphocytes from workers in pathology wards who have been exposed to FA, compared with a group of unexposed subjects. The subjects were also analyzed for the GSTM1 and GSTT1 metabolic gene polymorphisms. The exposed subjects showed a significant increase in the frequency of CA per cell and in the percentage of cells with aberrations compared to control subjects. The different GST genotypes did not affect the level of cytogenetic damage since CA frequencies were not statistically different between the GST "null" genotypes and the GST "positives". The generalized linear models showed that the number of CAs and cells with CAs increased with age, but, independent of age, it was significantly higher in the experimental rather than in the control group. Cubic-spline regression confirmed the linear relationship between CAs and age, but it provided evidence for a non-linear relationship between CAs and the number of years of FA exposure. Similar results were observed when the model included the number of cells with CAs as dependent variables. Our results demonstrate that air FA induces CAs even consequently to low levels of daily exposure, indicating an increased risk of genetic damage for workers exposed to this air pollutant.
  Archive für Toxikologie 03/2011; 85(10):1295-302. · 4.67 Impact Factor
• Article: Allelic frequencies at the ACE and LRPAP1 loci suggest age-related relationships in a northern Italian population.

  Alfredo Santovito, Claudio Bulgarello, Piero Cervella, Maria Paola Bigatti, Massimiliano Delpero
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  ABSTRACT: The present work attempts to determine the distribution of ACE and LRPAP1 genotypes and allele frequencies in a sample of the population of north-western Italy and to examine the age-related association of these polymorphisms. ACE D allele frequency found in this work further confirms data obtained in previous studies of Northern Italian populations. Regarding the LRPAP1 gene, high frequencies of the deleted allele in European populations were also confirmed. In order to analyse the relationship between ACE and LRPAP1 gene polymorphisms and age, the sample was subdivided into four age groups: 1-30 (n= 99), 31-50 (n= 165), 51-79 (n= 146) and 80-100 years old (n= 57). For the ACE gene, significant difference in D/D genotype frequency was found only between the younger and the 51-79 age groups (p<0.05), the latter showing the lower frequency value. Significant differences were found, for both the I/D and D/D LRPAP1 genotypes, between the first and the second age group (p < 0.02) and between the first and the third age group (p < 0.01), with the 51-79 age group showing the higher D/D and the lower I/D genotype frequency values.
  Annals of Human Biology 34(1):102-6. · 1.98 Impact Factor