engleski

Sister chromatid exchange and proliferativ rate index in a Croatian population occupationally exposed to pesticides

At the present there are more than 1000 chemicals classified as pesticides and many reports have shown that some of them have genotoxic properties. In the present longitudinal study possible genetic damage on a population of workers occupationally exposed to a mixture of pesticides by using sister chromatid exchange analysis have been evaluated. As an additional cytogenetic parameter, the proportion of lymphocytes that undergo one, two or three cell divisions as well as proliferativ rate index have been determined. This study was performed on the exposed group of workers employed in pesticide production, simultaneously exposed to a complex mixture of pesticides (atrazine, alachlor, cyanazine, 2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, malathion). The blood samples of the exposed subjects were collected in three different periods: before the beginning of the new pesticide production period, after 8 months of every-day work in the pesticide production, and 8 months after the removal of subjects out of the production. In all three samplings, the mean value of SCE and number of HFCs in the exposed group was significantly higher in the comparison to the control group. There were no differences in PRI between control and exposed group, no regards to sampling period. In both groups examined, the majority of lymphocytes were found in the second cell division, following cultivation. These results suggest that the increase in the number of SCE found in the exposed subjects is not the result of neither cytotoxic or epigenetic action of pesticides but chronic occupational exposure to a mixture of them.

pesticides; sister chromatid exchanges; proliferativ rate index; biomonitoring

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