An exploration of biomarkers for noise exposure: mitochondrial DNA copy number and micronucleus frequencies in Chinese workers

ABSTRACT

Few studies have been conducted that use biomarkers as early warning signals for noise-associated health hazards. To explore potentially effective biomarkers for noise-exposed populations, we recruited 218 noise-exposed male workers in China. We calculated cumulative noise exposure (CNE) through noise intensity and noise-exposed duration. When the model was fully adjusted, ln-transformed relative mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn) decreased by 0.014 (95% confidence interval (CI): −0.026, −0.003) units with each 1 dB(A)∙year increase in CNE levels. CNE was further included in the model as a grouping variable, and the results showed a negative dose-effect relationship between relative mtDNAcn and CNE (P-trend = 0.045). However, we did not find a correlation between CNE and micronucleus (MN) frequencies. Our findings suggest that CNE in workers was associated with a decrease in relative mtDNAcn which may provide a potential biomarker for noise and for certain health risk but not with MN frequencies.

KEYWORDS:

• Cumulative noise exposure
• mitochondrial DNA copy number
• DNA damage

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

J. Y.: Data curation, Methodology, Writing – original draft. W. L.: Data curation, Investigation, Data extraction, Funding acquisition. Y. S.: Writing – review & editing. Q. Z.: Writing – review & editing. X. Z.: Writing – review & editing. Z. X.: Supervision, Writing – re-view & editing. W. A.: Supervision, Writing – review & editing. P. S.: Conceptualization, Supervi-sion, Writing – review & editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data are available by email to the corresponding author.

Informed consent statement

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Shanghai Chemical Occupational Disease Control Institute (IRB approval number: IRB#2022-02).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by the Shanghai 3-year Action Plan (Grant number: GWV-10.1-XK12).