engleski

Preliminary ResultsS of Mercury Chloride Genotoxity in ats

Mercury is naturally occurring toxic element in the bio- I sphere, which is additionally released into the el1vironment by I human activities. This study evaluated genotoxic effects of mercury chloride in rats, and possible protective role of meso- 2, 3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (meso-DMSA) chelation therapy. Ten female Wistar rats aged 5 weeks received mercury chloride orally in daily doses of 0.20 mg Hg/kg b.w. for 5 consecutive days. Two days after the last dose of mercury chloride, five animals were treated orally with meso-DMSA. The chelator was given during 5 consecutive days at the dose of 45.6 mg/kg b.w., each. Five nontreated animals served as control. Seven days after the animals received the last dose of mercury chloride they were killed by exanguination from the abdominal aorta. Blood samples were processed and analyzed using supravitally acridine orange stained micronucleus test, comet assay, and induction of apoptosis. Statistical comparison in- volved one-way analysis of variance (ANOV A). Significant increase in both micronuclei frequency (MN) and tail length (TL) was found in mercury treated animals. No difference in MN or TL values compared to control was found in mercury treated animals that received the chelator. Apoptosis was not found in any experimental group. These results show that mercury given to animals in our experiment produced measur- able genotoxic effect, which was reversible after chelation therapy.

nije evidentirano

doi: 10.1016/S0378-4274(01)00394-0