Investigation of protein-styrene oxide adducts as a molecular biomarker of human exposed to styrene

Hemoglobin-styrene oxide adducts in blood have been studied as a molecular biomarker of worker exposed to styrene. Determination of protein-styrene oxide adducts in different biological samples with modified Raney-Ni procedure is described in this paper. The following biological samples have been investigated: fresh rat blood reacted with styrene oxide in vitro; rat blood reacted with styrene or styrene oxide in vivo; vein blood from workers exposed to styrene in two factories. The data showed that there was a good linear dose-response relationship between reacting dose of styrene oxide or styrene and amount of protein-styrene oxide adducts in both in vitro and in vivo experiments. For human samples, a dose-response relationship between protein adducts and styrene exposure can be found in glass fiber factory, but not in piano manufacture plant.