• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.213-222
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• 2002

The alkaline comet assay has been used with increasing popularity to investigate the level of DNA damage in biomonitoring studies within the last decade in Western countries. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of the alkaline comet assay as a biomarker of oxidative DNA damage for monitoring in the Korean population, and also to evaluate the effect of nutritional status and lifestyle factors on H2O2 induced oxidative DNA damage measured by the alkaline comet assay in human lymphocytes. The study population consisted of 61 healthy Korean male volunteers, aged 20-28. Epidemiological background data including dietary habits, smoking habits and anthropometrical measurements were collected through personal interviews. After blood collection, the comet assay in peripheral lymphocytes and plasma lipids analysis was carried out and the results analyzed. Tail moment (TM) and tail length (TL) of the comet assay were use\ulcorner to measure DNA damage in the lymphocytes of the subjects. Statistically significant (p < 0.05) positive correlations were observed between DNA damage (TM or TL) and smoking habits expressed as cigarettes smoked per day and pack years (r = 0.311 and 0.382 for TM, r = 0.294 and 0.350 for TL, respectively). There were also significant positive correlations between DNA damage parameter and waist-hip ratio. Higher plasma triglyceride levels were associated with increased damage to DNA. There were no correlations between the consumption frequencies of vegetables and DNA damage to the subjects. However, consumption frequencies of fruit and fruit juice intake were inversely associated with the TM and TL. The results indicate that die comet assay is a simple, rapid and sensitive method for detecting lymphocyte DNA damage induced by cigarette smoking. Consumption of fruit or fruit juices could potentiall modify the damaged DNA in the human peripheral lymphocytes of young Korean men.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.569-588
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• 2013

The organic foods is the terminology calling the organic products, the organic livestock and the organic processing food. The value of organic food may be evaluated as the index of the nutrient content, the safety and the health promotion. The reason why consumers prefer the organic food in the market is because the value of health promotion to be obtained through its consumption is expected to be bigger than the expense according to the purchase of organic food. This study has the significance in developing the direct evaluation model like the human biomonitoring method. The hypothesis for this study is summarized, "If the metabolome of metabolic syndrome of decreases, the exposure of substance of health harm decreases, the number of hospital care decreases and the quality of life shall be improved if the organic food is incepted in the long term and the health care is managed well". The consumer's cooperative and the health consumer's cooperative select the experimental group of 100 persons and the comparative group of 100 persons in 5 areas in the whole country at the same time to verify this hypothesis. Its rate of change is compared and analyzed by measuring the blood and urine of each biomarkers such as the exposed agriculture pesticides, the nitrate in the body at intervals of 2 months for 1 year. Also, by letting participants in the experiment record the major activity such as the dietary intake and the exercise, etc., in the questionnaire and the performance evaluation form, the statistical analysis for the correlation of this with the metabolome, etc., is conducted. The time that is called minimum 1 year and a lot of expense are required to implement this model. Accordingly, the cooperative study by composing the consortium of the interdisciplinary and the interagency is desirable.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nutrition Society Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.139.1-139
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• 2001

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.572-580
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• 2018

Objectives: Human biomonitoring (HBM) is a measurement of the chemicals and their metabolites in human biological samples and has been successfully employed to determine the exposure levels of environmental chemicals. In this study, we analyzed seasonal variations of the blood or urinary levels of chemicals, and assessed that these differences could affect the results of association study. Methods: The Korea National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS) is a nationwide survey that analyzes exposure levels of environmental pollutants, 19 kinds of chemicals including heavy metals and organic chemicals, and the exposure factors in the general population. Based on KoNEHS data, we analyzed the levels of chemicals concentrations over the total survey period (2012-2014) and each season, and assessed the association of thyroid measures with phthalate metabolite and BPA. Results: Exposure levels of blood mercury and lead were lower in summer compare to winter. Bisphenol A and PAHs metabolites were higher in spring and summer, but lower in autumn. VOCs metabolites were generally lower in summer and autumn. Phthalate metabolites were higher in all other seasons than in winter. Pyrethroid metabolite, 3-PBA, was higher in summer and autumn. Regarding seasonal variation of chemical exposures, the statistical significance and size of effects between thyroid measures and phthalate and BPA were changed with season. Conclusion: Seasonal variations of chemical exposure and health outcome should be considered for interpreting biomonitoring results from a public health context.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.607-617
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• 2020

Human bio-monitoring (HBM) data is a very important resource for tracking total exposure and concentrations of a parent chemical or its metabolites in human biomarkers. However, until now, it was difficult to execute the integration of different types of HBM data due to incompatibility problems caused by gaps in study design, chemical description and coding system between different sources in Korea. In this study, we presented a standardized code system and HBM knowledge model (KM) based on relational database modeling methodology. For this purpose, we used 11 raw datasets collected from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) between 2006 and 2018. We then constructed the HBM database (DB) using a total of 205,491 concentration-related data points for 18,870 participants and 86 chemicals. In addition, we developed a summary report-type statistical analysis program to verify the inputted HBM datasets. This study will contribute to promoting the sustainable creation and versatile utilization of big-data for HBM results at the MFDS.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.510-517
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• 2010

Phthalates, such as di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP) have been proved to be teratogenics and endocrine disruptors, metabolized rapidly and excreted in the urine. In this study, a simultaneous analytical method for 10 phthalate metabolites, MnBP, MiBP, MBzP, MCHP, MEHP, MEHHP, MEOHP, MnOP, MiNP and MiDP, in human urines, based on switching system with on-line pretreatment column using HPLC-MS/MS has been developed. This method was validated according to the guideline of bioanalytical method validation of National Institute of Toxicological Research. Limits of detection range between 0.2 and 0.9 ng/ml for 10 phthalate metabolites. The calibration curves showed linearity in the range 0.997~0.999, and the results of the intra- and inter-day validations were in the range from 0.4 to 14.7% RSD and from 0.3 to 9.4% RSD, respectively. Recoveries of phthalate metabolites varied from 87.0 to 116.1%. This analytical method showed high accuracy and stable precision for all metabolites, and seems to be suitable for biomonitoring of phthalates in human urine.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.85-91
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• 2014

Deoxynivalenol (DON) and related trichothecene mycotoxins are extensively distributed in the cereal-based food and feed stuffs worldwide. Recent climate changes and global grain trade increased chance of exposure to more DON and related toxic metabolites in poorly managed production systems. Monitoring the biological and environmental exposures to the toxins are crucial in protecting human and animals from toxicities of the hazardous contaminants in food or feeds. Exposure biomarkers including urine DON itself are prone to shift to less harmful metabolites by intestinal microbiota and liver metabolic enzymes. De-epoxyfication of DON by gut microbes such as Eubacterium strain BBSH 797 and Eubacterium sp. DSM 11798 leads to more fecal secretion of DOM-1. By contrast, most of plant-derived DON-glucoside is also easily catabolized to free DON by gut microbes, which produces more burden to body. Phase 2 hepatic metabolism also contributes to the glucuronidation of DON, which can be useful urine biomarkers. However, chemical modification could be very typical depending on the anthropologic or genetic background, luminal bacteria, and hepatic metabolic enzyme susceptibility to the toxins in the diet. After toxin exposure, effect biomarkers are also important in estimating the linkage and mechanisms of foodborne diseases in human and animal population. Most prominent adverse effects are demonstrated in the DON-induced immunological and behavioral disorders. For instance, acutely elevated interleukin-8 from insulted gut exposed to dietaty DON is a dominant clinical biomarker in human and animals. Moreover, subchronic exposure to the toxins is associated with high levels of serum IgA, a biological mediator of IgA nephritis. In particular, anorexia monitoring using mouse models are recently developed to monitor the biological activities of DON-induced feed refusal. It is also mechanistically linked to alteration of serotoin and peptide YY, which are promising biomarkers of neurological disorders by the toxins. As animal-alternative biomonitoring, huamn enterocyte-based assay has been developed and more realistic gut mimetic models would be useful in monitoring the effect biomarkers in resposne to toxic contaminants in the future investigations.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.31-41
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• 2012

Objectives: Biomonitoring is used to assess human environmental exposures. Urinary biomonitoring data are typically adjusted to a constant creatinine concentration to correct for variable dilutions among spot samples. Our objective was to investigate urinary creatinine concentrations by region, gender, age and lifestyle. Methods: We studied urinary creatinine concentrations in 6,286 Koreans aged 20 years old and older who participated the fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey (KNHANES IV) in 2009. Urinary creatinine concentration analysis used the Jaffe method. Results: The average urinary creatinine concentration of 6,286 Koreans was 158.99 mg/dl. The urinary creatinine concentration was significantly higher among men (184.97 mg/dl) than women (130.02 mg/dl). In both men and women, urinary creatinine concentrations were significantly different according to age group (p < 0.01). Whereas the urinary creatinine concentration of men significantly differed with smoking in adjusted comparison analysis, that of women significantly differed by education level. Ninety-two percent of urinary creatinine concentration was included within WHO guidelines effective range(30 mg/dl ${\leq}$ urinary creatinine concentration ${\leq}$ 300 mg/dl). In multiple regression analysis, creatinine was influenced by gender, age and body mass index (BMI). Conclusions: The urinary creatinine value obtained from representative samples of adult Koreans aged 20 year and older in KNHANES IV 2009 could be used as a reference value for other nationally studied surveys, such as abandoned metal mine surveys and surveys for industrial complexes.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.155-162
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• 2010

Aflatoxin $B_1$, a known human carcinogen, is the member of aflatoxin subfamily that is most frequently found in contaminated foods. Epidemiological studies have suggested that aflatoxins may be associated with human liver cancer and acute hepatitis. Recently it was reported that the traditional medical herbs sold in domestic markets are contaminated with aflatoxins. Long-term administration of these contaminated medicines could result in adverse health effects. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the levels of exposure to aflatoxin in people who ingest traditional herbal medicines. Blood samples were collected, before and after the herbal medicine intake, from 151 subjects who visited the hospital. The metabolite of aflatoxin $B_1$ in blood, aflatoxin $B_1$-albumin (aflatoxin $B_1$-lysine), is reportedly an appropriate internal exposure indicator, and its levels in the collected bloods were therefore analyzed using a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The analytical method of aflatoxin $B_1$-lysine in blood was firstly optimized in Korea and the levels were detected below quantification limits (2 pg/mg albumin) in this study population. Consequently, the exposure levels of aflatoxin $B_1$ by ingestion of herbal medicines were low but it is important to monitor routinely due to the possibility of risk on the aflatoxin exposure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.187-191
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• 2003

In this study, biomonitoring methods were developed to measure BTEXs exposure level in the air, metabolites of benzene and toluene in human urine, individual susceptibility markers in human blood for evaluation of the health effects about environmental pollution. We have also performed a small-scaled molecular epidemiology study on residents in Chuncheon and workers in workplace for these method applications. The workers in workplace were surveyed as study areas, and the residents in Chuncheon which is in the suburban area were surveyed as comparative areas in this study. Actually, 31 workers in as target group and 33 residences in as control group this epidemiological study. The results obtained from this study were as follows: 1. Benzene is a well-known carcinogen, it's median concentrations were 0.00024∼0.02057ppm at suburban area and 0.002∼00.654ppm at work place, These benzene concentrations were not exceed the OSHA(Occupational Safety and Health Administration) threshold benzene level of 1ppm in the states. 2. Metabolites product of benzene(t,t-Muconic Acid) and toluene(Hippuric Acid) were not significant both in suburban and workplace area. The median concentration of t,t-MA and HA were 0.0122, 1.44277g/g creatinine, respectively. 3. In the case of individual susceptibility markers as CYPlAl, 41.8% of them has homozygous wild type(W) and who has heterozygous variant type(H) was 35.4% and 22.8% of homozygous variant type(M) genetic type. In the case of CYP2E1, 62.82% of them has homozygous wild type(D) type, 34.62% of each has heterozygous variant type (DC) and 2.56% of them has homozygous variant type (CC). Who doesn't have GSTM1 gene was 46.25% and who has GSTM1 gene was 53.75％. Who doesn't have GSTT1 gene was 40.0％ in study groups and who has GSTT1 gene was 60.0%. Who has W genetic type, which is homozygous wild type of GSTP1, was 69.18% and H genetic type, which is heterozygous variant type was 28.4%. M genetic type which is homozygous variant type was 2.4%. 4. Concentration differences of metabolites such as t,t-MA and HA in urine, which is generated by individual susceptibility marker of GSTM1, GSTT1, GSTP1 gene of Phase I and CYP1A1, CYP2E1 gene of Phase II, was examined. As a result, GSTP1 and GSTM1 indicate slight differences depend on the amount of metabolites in urine, it was not statistically significant.