**Author details**

Review of in vitro studies allows to propose the cell free system with CT-DNA to be used as a system to evaluate the biologic activity of organic compounds extracted from particulate matter, detecting genetic damage as DNA adducts or oxidative damage as 8-oxodG, as a first information about a possible genetic risk of air pollution, and the different quality of respirable particles according to the content of c-PAHs adsorbed on their surface as well as oxidative

All discussed studies indicate, that DNA adducts, Comet assay and DNA fragmentation in sperm are sensitive biomarkers of exposure to c-PAHs in polluted air, chromosomal aberra‐ tions by FISH and micronuclei as biomarkers of effect, and 8-oxodG and 15-F2t-IsoP as

It seems that when using these biomarkers the dose-effect is seen only in a certain range,

It is important to identify simultaneously the gene susceptibility, especially the genetic polymorphisms of metabolic genes and genes encoding DNA repair enzymes. DNA damage may be further affected by life style as smoking, ETS, diet – intake of vitamins A, C, E, folic acid, oxidative metabolism by lipid metabolism (triglycerides, cholesterol, HDL, LDL) – it is therefore pertinent to analyze all these endpoints in the biological material in the course of

New perspectives may be seen in using the microarray methods, e.g. studying the gene

Summing up, molecular epidemiology studies on the environmental exposure to c-PAHs in ambient air should be very complex: determining personal exposure, DNA and oxidative damage, gene susceptibility and life style factors. It will bring new results, which may specify

We would like to acknowledge the great help and support of our friends from National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA, especially Drs. Joellen Lewtas, Lawrence W. Reiter, and Sally Perault Darney. Thanks to their support we were able to establish molecular

Writing of this review was supported by Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (P30113-13458S) and by CITI-SENSE, a Collaborative Project funded by the EU FP7-ENV-2012 (no. 308524).

new information important to evaluate properly c-PAHs human health risk.

damage induced according to the size of PM.

.

**8. Conclusion**

630 Current Air Quality Issues

biomarkers of oxidative damage.

probably up to 10 ng B[a]P/m3

molecular epidemiology studies.

**Acknowledgements**

expression of genes coding DNA repair enzymes.

epidemiology methods in the Czech Republic.

Pavel Rossner, Jr., Blanka Binkova, Andrea Rossnerova and Radim J. Sram\*

\*Address all correspondence to: sram@biomed.cas.cz

Institute of Experimental Medicine AS CR, Videnska, Prague, Czech Republic
