engleski

Lead acetate genitoxicicty in suckling rats

The mutagenic and carcinogenic potentials of lead are still being investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the genotoxic effect of lead acetate in the early period of life, when the organism is extremely sensitive to toxic effects of lead. Six-day-old suckling Wistar rats were exposed to lead (as acetate) either orally for 9 days (daily dose 2 mg Pb/kg b. wt., 18 mg/kg b.wt. total dose) or by a single intraperitoneal injection (5 mg Pb/kg b. wt.). DNA damage was investigated using the comet assay and in vivo micronucleus test. The results of the comet assay showed statistically significant differences between the control (unexposed) animals and the two groups of exposed animals by ANOVA weighted for unequal variance (heterogeneity of variances was found by Levene's test), followed by Tukey's post hoc test at the level of significance of p<0.05. The two groups of lead-exposed animals were also significantly different from one another. Orally lead-exposed animals showed a significant increase of MN frequencies in reticulocytes and erythrocytes compared to unexposed animals (ANOVA, p<0.05).

lead acetate; suckling rats; genotoxicity; alkaline comet assay; in vivo micronucleus test

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