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Occupational exposure to anaesthetic gases is one of the major hazards to healthcare personnel. We evaluated the cytogenetic effects of chronic exposure to low concentrations of anaesthetic gases in operating theatres. The study included 21 anesthetists and 21 control subjects who matched in age and gender. Chromosome aberrations (CAs) and sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) assays were performed. All subjects were also genotyped for glutathione S-transferase T1 (GSTT1) gene polymorphisms. Significant differences were found between exposed and controls in terms of SCEs frequency (P = 0.001) and replication index value (P = 0.005), but not in terms of CAs (P = 0.201) and aberrant cells (P = 0.227) frequencies. Regression analyses indicated that age and the years of employment did not influence the level of chromosomal damage in both groups. Finally, among anesthetists, GSTT1 null individuals showed a significant higher frequency of SCE with respect to GSTT1-positive subjects.

Summary Cytokine polymorphisms influence the outcomes of parasitic diseases and vary among populations because of their different evolutionary histories and selective pressures imposed by host–pathogen interactions. In this frame, we investigated the frequencies of TNF-α (-308G/A), TGF-β1 (codon 10C/T, codon 25C/G) and IL-10 (-1082A/G) SNPs in 133 individuals from Ouangolodougou, a rural village in Northern Ivory Coast, where malaria and other parasitic diseases are endemic. The SNPs alleles were determined by ARMS-PCR methodology. Allele frequencies of the SNPs investigated were as follows: IL 10 -1082G = 0.741 and -1082A = 0.259; TGF-β1 Codon 10 C = 0.835 and T = 0.165; TGF-β1 Codon 25 G = 0.782 and C = 0.218. For the TNF-α gene, we found high frequencies of the -308A allele (0.305) and heterozygote genotypes (0.594), with a consequent deviation from the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. The high heterozygosity at the TNF-α locus suggests a possible selective advantage of the heterozygote genomes, associated with intermediate levels of TNF-α expression, against the infectious agents endemic in Western Africa.

We analyzed the frequencies of eight human polymorphic Alu insertion loci in population samples from five towns in North-West Italy: Postua, Cavaglià, Biella, Torino, and Genova. All loci under scrutiny were found to be polymorphic in all samples, with the two exceptions of locus A25 in Postua, which was fixed for the absence of the Alu element, and APO in Genova, where the Alu insertion was fixed. Heterozigosity values were highly variable in all loci. F(ST) values for all loci indicate that most of the variability is found within populations, while between population variability is lower. In the multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis plot, the studied populations are separated from the main group represented by European populations. The Postua sample is set apart also from neighboring towns as Cavaglià and Biella, confirming previous observations of the demographic isolation of this population.