摘要：ackground:Telomere length (TL) in surrogate tissues may be influenced by environmental exposures.oBjective:We aimed to determine whether lifetime pesti cides use is associated with buccal cell TL.Methods:We examined buccal cell TL in relation to lifetime use of 48 pesti cides for 1,234 cancer-free white male pesti cide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), a prospective cohort study of 57,310 licensed pesti cide applicators. Participants provided detailed information on lifetime use of 50 pesti cides at enrollment (1993–1997). Buccal cells were collected from 1999 to 2006. Relative telomere length (RTL) was measured using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. We used linear regression modeling to evaluate the associations between specific pesti cides and the logarithm of RTL, adjusting for age at buccal cell collection, state of residence, applicator license type, chewing tobacco use, and total lifetime days of all pesti cide use.results:The mean RTL for participants decreased significantly in association with increased life-time days of pesti cide use for alachlor (p = 0.002), 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D; p = 0.004), metolachlor (p = 0.01), trifluralin (p = 0.05), permethrin (for animal application) (p = 0.02), and toxaphene (p = 0.04). A similar pattern of RTL shortening was observed with the metric lifetime intensity-weighted days of pesti cide use. For dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT), we observed significant RTL shortening for lifetime intensity-weighted days (p = 0.04), but not for lifetime days of DDT use (p = 0.08). No significant RTL lengthening was observed for any pesti cide.conclusion:Seven pesti cides previously associated with cancer risk in the epidemiologic literature were inversely associated with RTL in buccal cell DNA among cancer-free pesti cide applicators. Replication of these findings is needed because we cannot rule out chance or fully rule out bias
关键词：Agricultural Health Study; cancer-free subjects; occupational exposures; pesti ;cides; ;telomere length
