Genotoxic effects of subacute treatments with wood dust extracts on the nasal epithelium of rats: assessment by the micronucleus and 32P-postlabelling.

Human exposure to wood dust has been epidemiologically linked to a number of enhanced incidences of various neoplasias, including those of the nose. Among different suspected woods, long-term exposure to the dust of beech (Fagus silvatica) is strongly associated with development of these tumors. Experimentally, it has been shown that a simple alcoholic extract of beech wood dust is mutagenic toward some bacteria and tumorigenic on mouse skin. For the present study, different groups of male Wistar rats were treated with aqueous, ethanol, or methanol extract of untreated beech wood dust via nasal drip at three concentrations for 48 h. Animals were killed 24 h after the last treatment and the nasal tissues were isolated to be examined for possible induction of micronuclei and DNA adducts. A clear dose-dependent increase in the number of micronuclei (P < 0.01) was observed after treatment of rats with each alcoholic extract of wood dust. In contrast, no DNA adducts could be detected with these extracts using the 32P-postlabelling technique. No increased number of micronucleated cells was found with solvents alone or with aqueous extract of dust. These data might support the early hypothesis that wood dust per se contains some in vivo genotoxic and thus possibly carcinogenic components extractable by an alcohol.