Acrylamide and glycidamide: approach towards risk assessment based on biomarker guided dosimetry of genotoxic/mutagenic effects in human blood.

Acrylamide (AA) is a carcinogen as demonstrated in animal experiments, but the relevance for the human situation is still unclear. AA and its metabolite glycidamide (GA) react with nucleophilic regions in biomolecules. However, whereas AA and GA react with proteins, DNA adducts are exclusively formed by GA under conditions simulating in vivo situations. For risk assessment it is of particular interest to elucidate whether AA or GA within the plasma concentration range resulting from food intake are "quenched" by preferential reaction with non-critical blood constituents or whether DNA in lymphocytes is damaged concomitantly under such conditions. To address this question dose- and time-dependent induction of hemoglobin (Hb) adducts as well as genotoxic and mutagenic effects by AA or GA were studied in human blood as a model system.