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Assessment of acetylcholinesterase activity, oxidative stress responses, and primary DNA damage in blood and brain tissue of chlorpyrifos-exposed rats

Organophosphate compounds are among the most frequently used pesticides worldwide. In this study, we evaluated the in vivo effects of the insecticide chlorpyrifos, which was orally administered to male Wistar rats at 0.160 mg/kg, 0.015 mg/kg, and 0.010 mg/kg for 28 days. Following treatment, the level of lipid peroxidation and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity was estimated in plasma and brain. To establish the potential DNA damaging effects of the exposure, we applied an alkaline comet assay on the white blood cells and brain tissue of the exposed and control animals. We found that 28-day exposure resulted in dose-dependent changes in AChE activity, which was significantly more depressed in the brain. Lipid peroxidation, presented as TBARS concentration, was elevated both in plasma and in the brain. All of the tested doses of chlorpyrifos were slightly genotoxic, both to the white blood cells and brain tissue. Taken together, our findings confirmed the AChE-inhibiting potency of chlorpyrifos and indicated that its toxicity was mediated through free radicals, which contributed to DNA instability. Considering that our study focused on very low doses of chlorpyrifos within toxicology reference values our results call for further research using other sensitive biomarkers of effect, along with different exposure scenarios.

Organophosphate compounds ; Insecticide ; DNA instability ; In vivo

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