Dietary determinants for haemoglobin adducts of acrylamide and glycidamide
Malene Outzen, Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark
Acrylamide is a human neurotoxin and is also classified as a probable human carcinogen (class 2A) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer based on results from animal studies. Earlier, acrylamide exposure was thought to occur solely through tobacco smoke and occupational exposure. In 2002, however, Swedish researchers detected acrylamide in carbohydrate-rich foods (e.g. potato products) formed by Maillard reactions, when these foods were prepared by frying, roasting, or baking at temperatures above 120°C.
As Acrylamide is a probable carcinogen to humans, it is important to identify which food sources that are associated to acrylamide and glycidamide levels measured in the humans. The biomarkers, haemoglobin-acrylamide and haemoglobin-glycidamide measured in the blood, have been found to reliably reflect the internal dose of average acrylamide exposure around the last 120 days in accordance with the lifetime of the erythrocytes. The aim of this study is to evaluate to what extent dietary factors are associated to haemoglobin-acrylamide and haemoglobin-glycidamide among non-smoking women attending the Danish prospective Diet, Cancer, and Health cohort. Baseline information on dietary intake is obtained from a self-administrated questionnaire. So far, only two studies have examined potential dietary factors, estimated from food frequency questionnaires, in relation to Hb-adduct levels.