Dioxin-like activities in serum across European and Inuit populations

Table 2 AhR-mediated serum activities, TCDD equivalents and lipid adjusted POP markers in serum

		Greenland	Warsaw	Sweden	Kharkiv	All
AhRag* ¹ (RLU/ml serum)	N	75	99	78	86	338
	Median	24	34	33	26	29
	Min	6.6	11	8.0	8.8	6.6
	Max	257	118	103	56	257
	% agonist	92	100	95	100	97
AhR-TEQ* ² (pg/g lipid)	N	70	99	76	80	325
	Median	197	312	428	337	310
	Min	38	72	104	110	38
	Max	1188	1054	1261	781	1261
AhRcomp* ³ (RLU/ml serum)	N	75	99	78	86	339
	Median	8.3	6.4	6.2	5.5	6.8
	Min	3.9	3.2	1.6	1.5	1.5
	Max	16	9.1	10	11	16
	% add/syn	41	3.0	6.4	18	16
	%antagonist	2.7	8.0	12	34	14
CB-153 (ng/g lipid)	N	74	100	98	82	355
	Median	220	16	210	47	78
	Min	5.1	3.3	41	5.5	3.3
	Max	5500	130	1500	200	5500
*p,p'* -DDE (ng/g lipid)	N	74	100	98	82	355
	Median	630	570	240	880	560
	Min	66	240	55	320	55
	Max	13000	2100	2300	12000	13000

*¹: AhRag: AhR activity of serum extract alone determined as the relative luciferase activity (RLU) per ml serum; Solvent background control = 6.67 RLU/ml serum. The % agonistic indicates the % of samples eliciting a significant increase in AhR activity compared to the solvent control. *² AhR-TEQ (TCDD equivalents): The samples eliciting significantly agonistic activity was calculated by interpolation to the TCDD dose-response curve using the Sigmaplot program, given as pg/g serum lipid. *³ AhRcomp: AhR competitive activity of serum extract + 60 pM TCDD (EC₅₀) given as RLU/ml serum. EC₅₀ solvent control = 6.67 RLU/ml serum; % add/syn and %antagonistic indicates the % of samples responding with a further increase or decrease of the EC_50(TCDD) induced activity, respectively.