Frequencies of chromosomal aberrations in pesticide sprayers working in plastic green houses

doi:10.1016/0165-1218(92)90256-Y

Mutation Research/Genetic Toxicology

Volume 279, Issue 2, 16 May 1992, Pages 145-148

https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1218(92)90256-Y Get rights and content

Abstract

The frequency of chromosome aberrations was studied in peripheral blood lymphocytes of 29 workers occupationally exposed to a mixture of pesticides and in 14 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. There was a significant increase in chromosome aberrations in sprayers when compared to unexposed persons (2.39% compared to 0.54%).

No positive correlation between the frequency of chromosome aberrations and the duration of exposure was observed. No significant difference between smokers and non-smokers was found.

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This chapter provides an overview of methods of genotoxicity testing and their application to identifying pesticides capable of inducing genetic damage. Pesticides are biologically active compounds selected and used for their biocidal properties. In many cases, these agents are highly specific in their toxic effects, acting on a unique molecular target or affecting a narrow range of organisms. As a subspecialty of toxicology, genetic toxicology is concerned with the adverse effects of chemicals and other physical agents on the DNA and other genetic components of living organisms. The primary focus of this discipline is to identify the agents and mechanisms involved in the formation of mutations—heritable genetic alterations in cells. A significant number of pesticides have exhibited genotoxic effects in short-term genotoxicity assays and may pose significant risks to humans. In addition to human and chronic animal studies, regulatory agencies often rely on other relevant biological data to assist in the evaluation of carcinogenicity. The ongoing challenge for researchers, regulators, and those interested in environmental health is to effectively use genotoxicity data to distinguish noncarcinogenic and nonmutagenic pesticides from those capable of inducing cancer and heritable mutations in humans, to determine which of the latter pose significant risks at human exposure levels, and, if continued use is needed, to identify safe methods and levels for the use of these agents.
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This chapter provides an overview of methods of genotoxicity testing and their application to identifying pesticides capable of inducing genetic damage. Pesticides are biologically active compounds selected and used for their biocidal properties. In many cases, these agents are highly specific in their toxic effects, acting on a unique molecular target or affecting a narrow range of organisms. As a subspecialty of toxicology, genetic toxicology is concerned with the adverse effects of chemicals and other physical agents on the DNA and other genetic components of living organisms. The primary focus of this discipline is to identify the agents and mechanisms involved in the formation of mutations—heritable genetic alterations in cells. A significant number of pesticides have exhibited genotoxic effects in short-term genotoxicity assays and may pose significant risks to humans. In addition to human and chronic animal studies, regulatory agencies often rely on other relevant biological data to assist in the evaluation of carcinogenicity. The ongoing challenge for researchers, regulators, and those interested in environmental health is to effectively use genotoxicity data to distinguish noncarcinogenic and nonmutagenic pesticides from those capable of inducing cancer and heritable mutations in humans, to determine which of the latter pose significant risks at human exposure levels, and, if continued use is needed, to identify safe methods and levels for the use of these agents.
Sister-chromatid exchange, chromosomal aberrations and delays in cell-cycle kinetics in human lymphocytes induced by dental composite resin eluates
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Further investigation, including quantification in organic eluates of these materials would give more insight into the active components that may be responsible for the observed cytogenetic effects. Over the last decades, conventional CA scoring as well as SCE techniques in peripheral blood lymphocytes has been extensively applied as biomarkers of early cytogenetic damage caused by several environmental hazards or therapeutic agents [27–30]. DNA strand-breaks caused by several genotoxic agents elicit repair processes, whose effects may become apparent as morphologically altered chromosomes or SCE.
We have investigated eluates derived from commercially available composite resin-based materials used for direct (Tetric Ceram/Ivoclar-Vivadent, Simile/Pentron, Filtek Z-250/3M ESPE) and indirect (Adoro/Ivoclar-Vivadent and Conquest Sculpture/Pentron) dental restorations, with respect to their genotoxic effects on human peripheral lymphocytes. Primary lymphocyte cultures obtained from blood samples of three healthy donors were exposed to eluates of freshly cured specimens of all the materials tested. Metaphases were induced with phytohaemagglutinin, collected after a 72-h treatment using colchicine and stained with the Fluorescence Plus Giemsa (FPG) procedure. Preparations were scored for sister-chromatid exchange (SCE) and chromosomal aberrations (CAs). The proliferation rate index (PRI) and the mitotic index (MI) were also calculated.
Our results show that eluates derived from the three direct composites (Filtek Z-250, Simile and Tetric Ceram) increased the frequencies of SCE and CAs and markedly reduced PRI and MI. Tetric Ceram's eluate, being the most genotoxic of all eluates tested, increased the frequencies of SCE up to 24.40 per cell (control, 9.87 per cell) and of CAs up to 424 per 100 metaphases scored (control, 5). Moreover, it caused a pronounced decrease of the PRI down to 1.31 (control, 2.44) and of the MI down to 9.8‰ (control, 19.2‰). In contrast, eluates derived from the laboratory-processed composites (Adoro and Conquest Sculpture) induced much less cytogenetic damage. Overall, the degree of genotoxicity and cytotoxicity decreased as follows: Tetric Ceram > Filtek Z-250 > Simile > Adoro = Conquest Sculpture.
These results indicate that composite resins used for direct and indirect dental restorations differ extensively in their cytotoxic and genotoxic potential and in their ability to affect chromosomal integrity, cell-cycle progression, DNA replication and repair. This underlines the impact of improved polymerization with respect to their biological behavior.
Genotoxic biomonitoring study of population residing in pesticide contaminated regions in Göksu Delta: Micronucleus, chromosomal aberrations and sister chromatid exchanges
2007, Environment International
Citation Excerpt :
Toxicological evidence of mutagen and carcinogen action of several pesticides and the fact that large populations exposed to these compounds have attracted the attention of many cytogenetic studies (Sinha, 1989; Torres et al., 1992; Kevekordes et al., 1996; Gebel et al., 1997). A limited number of field studies seeking to evaluate the genetic risk of occupational exposure established an association between occupational exposure to complexes of pesticides and the presence of chromosomal aberrations (CAs) and/or sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) and/or micronuclei (MN) (Kourakis et al., 1992; Carbonell et al., 1995; Ribas et al., 1996; Garaj-Vrhovac and Zeljezic, 1999). The role of MN as an intermediate endpoint of carcinogenesis has received much support in the literature, but stronger evidence is available concerning the association between rate of structural CA and cancer risk (Hagmar et. al., 2004).
Pesticides are widely used throughout the world in agriculture to protect crops and in public health to control diseases. Nevertheless, exposure to pesticides represents a potential risk to humans. This paper describes a study of possible genetic damage in the people living in regions contaminated with complex mixture of pesticides in Göksu Delta. In this study, used methods were chromosomal aberration (CA), sister chromatid exchange analysis (SCE) in the peripheral blood lymphocytes, and micronucleus (MN) assay in the buccal epithelial cells. In the present investigation, 32 affected subjects consist of 16 smoking and 16 non-smokings and an equal number of control subjects were assessed for genome damage. Micronucleus (MN), Broken egg (BE), Karyorrhexis (KR), Karyolysis (KL) and Binucleus (BN) frequencies were higher in affected subjects than in controls. Smoking had a statistically significant effect on the Micronucleus, Karyorrhexis and Binucleus frequencies for both the control and the exposed group. Also smoking and exposure affected the frequency of sister chromatid exchange and chromosomal aberrations compared with control groups.
Pesticide exposure - Egyptian scene
2004, Toxicology
Pesticides have contributed to dramatic increases in crop yields and in the quantity and variety of the diet. Also, they have helped to limit the spread of certain diseases. But pesticides have harmful effects; they can cause injury to human health as well as to the environment. The range of these adverse health effects includes acute and persistent injury to the nervous system, lung damage, injury to the reproductive organs, dysfunction of the immune and endocrine systems, birth defects, and cancer.
Problems associated with pesticide hazards to man and the environment are not confined to the developing countries. Developed nations have already suffered these problems, and still facing some problems in certain locations. For many reasons, the severity of pesticide hazards is much pronounced in Third World Countries.
A number of long persistent organochlorines and highly toxic organophosphates, which have been banned or severely restricted, are still marketed and used in many developing countries. The misuse of pesticides by concerned individuals, in addition to lack of or weak national controlling plans are behind the outbreak of adverse effects in developing countries.
Since about 25 years, the use of DDT and many other organochlorine pesticides in Egyptian agriculture has been banned. However, these long persistent compounds are still detectable in many different types of environmental samples (e.g., water, fish, sediment, vegetables, fruits, milk, foodstuffs, etc.). Large number of compounds known as “extremely hazardous”, “highly hazardous”, “probable human carcinogenic”, and “possible human carcinogenic”, are listed among the pesticides registered and recommended for use in Egypt during the season of 2001/2002.
The present article deals with: trends and patterns of pesticide use, impact of pesticides on human health, factors contributing to pesticide risks, environmental impacts of pesticides, and bioaccumulation of pesticide residues in food; giving special concern to the situation in Egypt.
Genotoxicity of pesticides: A review of human biomonitoring studies
2003, Mutation Research - Reviews in Mutation Research
Citation Excerpt :
The incidence of CA, MN and SCE positively correlated with duration of exposure in many of these investigations [26,28,29,71,73,87,89,94]. On the contrary few studies described an increase of chromosomal damage in pesticide-exposed subjects irrespective of the duration of exposure [64,66,67]. The persistence of chromosomal damage was shown to be short-lived for acute or discontinuous exposure.
Pesticides constitute a heterogeneous category of chemicals specifically designed for the control of pests, weeds or plant diseases. Pesticides have been considered potential chemical mutagens: experimental data revealed that various agrochemical ingredients possess mutagenic properties inducing mutations, chromosomal alterations or DNA damage. Biological monitoring provides a useful tool to estimate the genetic risk deriving from an integrated exposure to a complex mixture of chemicals. Studies available in scientific literature have essentially focused on cytogenetic end-points to evaluate the potential genotoxicity of pesticides in occupationally exposed populations, including pesticide manufacturing workers, pesticide applicators, floriculturists and farm workers. A positive association between occupational exposure to complex pesticide mixtures and the presence of chromosomal aberrations (CA), sister-chromatid exchanges (SCE) and micronuclei (MN) has been detected in the majority of the studies, although a number of these failed to detect cytogenetic damage. Conflicting results from cytogenetic studies reflect the heterogeneity of the groups studied with regard to chemicals used and exposure conditions. Genetic damage associated with pesticides occurs in human populations subject to high exposure levels due to intensive use, misuse or failure of control measures. The majority of studies on cytogenetic biomarkers in pesticide-exposed workers have indicated some dose-dependent effects, with increasing duration or intensity of exposure.
Chromosomal damage induced by pesticides appears to have been transient in acute or discontinuous exposure, but cumulative in continuous exposure to complex agrochemical mixtures.
Data available at present on the effect of genetic polymorphism on susceptibility to pesticides does not allow any conclusion.

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Frequencies of chromosomal aberrations in pesticide sprayers working in plastic green houses

Abstract

Mutation Res.

Mutation Res.

Mutation Res.

Environ. Res.