Abstract
The scientific literature is replete with reports of cases of benzene-induced toxicity to the haematopoietic system. These mainly involve aplastic anaemia, the first cases of which were reported in 1897. At high level of benzene exposure (air concentration > 100 p.p.m.), the incidence of aplastic anaemia is approximately 1/100 individuals exposed, but this drops precipitously at lower levels of exposure (10-20 p.p.m.) to around 1/10,000. Factors that affect susceptibility may include high liver cytochrome P450 2E1 activity and low folic acid intake. The mechanism of benzene-induced aplastic anaemia remains unclear, but is likely to involve: (a) metabolism of benzene in the liver; (b) transport of metabolites to the marrow and their secondary activation to toxic quinones and free radicals by peroxidase enzymes; (c) induction of apoptosis, DNA damage and altered differentiation in early progenitor cells; and (d) depletion of the stem cell pool.
References
Feb 1, 1976·Environmental Research·E C Vigliani, A Forni
May 1, 1992·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·R D IronsV A Henry
Jan 1, 1991·Free Radical Biology & Medicine·V V SubrahmanyamM T Smith
Jul 1, 1989·Environmental Health Perspectives·M T SmithD A Eastmond
Jul 1, 1989·Environmental Health Perspectives·S N YinG C Wang
Oct 1, 1987·Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology·D A EastmondR D Irons
Jan 1, 1987·Critical Reviews in Toxicology·G F Kalf
Mar 1, 1987·Toxicology and Industrial Health·W L Marcus
Jan 1, 1985·American Journal of Industrial Medicine·M Aksoy
Jan 1, 1985·Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health·R D Irons
Jan 1, 1973·Internationales Archiv Für Arbeitsmedizin·A LangeJ Szymańska
Jul 10, 1973·Internationales Archiv Für Arbeitsmedizin·R SmolikW Zatoński
Mar 1, 1984·Toxicology Letters·K A BaarsonR E Albert
Apr 1, 1982·Environmental Research·A Baslo, M Aksoy
Mar 1, 1996·American Journal of Industrial Medicine·S N YinW J Blot
Dec 1, 1996·Environmental Health Perspectives·N RothmanS Yin
Jun 1, 1913·The Journal of Experimental Medicine·M C Winternitz, A D Hirschfelder
Citations
Jul 31, 2007·International Journal of Toxicology·Kang YuXin-Hua Liu
Aug 9, 2001·American Journal of Industrial Medicine·R B HayesM Linet
Nov 25, 2003·British Journal of Haematology·J C W MarshUNKNOWN British Committee for Standards in Haematology