Use of a novel peripheral biomarker, urine trans, trans, muconic acid, for benzene toxicity monitoring

Benzene is a colorless poisonous toxic liquid with a sweet odor. Benzene exposure is of particular concern because recent research indicates that benzene exposure can result in chronic toxicity. Potential metabolic mechanisms underlying the hemopoietic toxicity of benzene include bioactivation of phenolic metabolites of benzene by myeloperoxidases in bone marrow, which results in hydroquinolone, a major leukemogen. In exposure and risk evaluations, the monitoring of benzene by peripheral biomarker has several advantages over a technical assessment of exposure. Of several monitoring methods, the peripheral urine biomarker, urine trans, trans-muconic acid (ttMA) level is accepted as a novel and useful monitoring tool for early diagnosis of exposure. Presently, it is introduced as an alternative to the classical biomarker, urine phenol. Here, some previous reports on the use of ttMA as biomarker have been reviewed.