Superfund Research Program

Effects of Polychlorinated Biphenyls & Polychlorinated Biphenyl-Containing River Sediments on Carcinogen Metabolism in Normal Human Mammary Epithelial Cells

Project Leader: James G. Wetmur
Grant Number: P42ES007384
Funding Period: 1995 - 2001

Project-Specific Links

Final Progress Reports

Year:   1999 

Individuals may be exposed to PCBs by eating fish from the Hudson River. PCBs concentrate in the fatty tissue. Various PCB congeners have estrogenic or anti-estrogenic effects. Normal human mammary epithelial cells were chosen as targets for investigating the molecular mechanisms of these effects. The goal of this project is to determine whether polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and sediments from New York City waterways that contain PCBs can alter the metabolism and activation of potential human mammary carcinogens in normal human mammary epithelial cells.

Cells have been treated with solvent alone (control), a PAH mix (5:5:1 1,2 enzanthracene, fluoranthene, benzo[a]pyrene), a DDT mix (1:1 tech DDT, p,p- DDD), a chlordane mix (1:1:1:1 chlordane, transnonachlor, heptachlor), Aroclor 1221 and with mixtures reflecting the relative abundances in Newark Bay and New York Harbor. Total RNA was isolated and polyA+ RNA was converted to cDNA (first strand synthesis). These as well as additional samples are being studied by quantitative PCR, with emphasis on erbB-2 and BRCA1. Of interest, only the treatment of non-confluent NHMEC cell cultures with the DDT mix led to marked cell proliferation. These same mixtures have been evaluated for estrogenic/antiestrogenic and progestagenic/antiprogestagenic activities in vitro.