Environmental polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbones (PAHs), which are formed during incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, are widely distributed in our environment. Human exposure to PAHs may occur through smoking, polluted air, food consumption and occupational contact. Urinary naphthols, 1-and 2-naphthol, have been suggested as route-specific biomarkers for exposure to airborne PAHs. Cytochrome p450 2E1 (CYP2E1) is known to be a great importance for the metabolism of organic solvents, which is a precacinogens with small molecular weight. This study describes the metabolic differences between PstI and RsaI polymorphisms (c1 allele: PstI-, RsaI±; c2 allele: PstI±, RsaI-) of CYP2E1 5-flanking region by genetically modified HepG2 cells, which overexpress the polymorphic regions. The results of CAT assay and western blot in the c2 allele overexpressed cells have higher activities than the c1 allele over-expressing cells. However, the metabolism of naphthalene to 2-naphthol has no difference due to the two genotypes. In this study, we established the CYP2E1 polymorphic allele transduced HepG2 cells to screen susceptibility-differences in PAH exposure. In conclusion, the CYP2E1 polymorphism may hardly induce susceptibility differences in PAH exposure monitoring with urinary naphthols.
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