engleski

Mercury chloride genotoxicity in human lymphocyte culture assessed by the alkaline comet assay

Mercury is the most toxic of the heavy metals and exerts a variety of toxic effects in the body. Within the cell it can destroy the various components selectively or in total by releasing lysosomes, damaging DNA and by rupturing the cell membrane. Mercury from mercuric chloride binds to the sulfhydryl groups of the cell membrane and other proteins, causing increased membrane permeability and inhibition of ATPase-dependent transport. The genotoxicity of mercury chloride in this study was assessed by alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis (the comet assay) in human peripheral blood lymphocytes. Four concentrations of metal salt dissolved in re-destilled water were used, 10, 50, 100 and 200 mM. Mitomicyn C (MMC) (0.5 mg/ml) was used as a positive control. An untreated control sample was also included in the experiment. Whole blood was exposed to HgCl2 for 24 and 48h at+370 C in CO2 incubator. All the samples were in duplicate. Three parameters were measured: tail length, tail moment, and tail intensity. The data were statistically analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey post hoc test. P< 0.05 was assumed significant. After 24 h of exposure to mercury chloride tail length values in samples treated with 50 and 100 mM of HgCl2 were statistically different from the control sample. There were no significant differences neither in tail moment neither in tail intensity after 24 hours of exposure. In 48 h of exposure statistically significant differences in tail length were found between the positive control and all other samples, and non-treated control sample and the highest mercury chloride concentration (200 mM). For the tail intensity and tail moment only the positive control sample was significantly different from all other samples.

mercury chloride; alkaline comet assay; genotoxicity

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