Cytogenetic study of organic and inorganic toxic substances onAllium cepa, Lactuca sativa, andHydra attenuata cells

Abstract

Assessment of genotoxicity (using the micronucleus assay for demonstration of chromosome aberrations and the frequency of double nuclei in cells) and cytotoxicity (here changes in quantitative characteristics of nucleoli were measured as a parameter of cell metabolism) for different organic and inorganic toxic substances was conducted with three organisms, namely, Allium cepa, Lactuca sativa, and Hydra attenuata. Comparative analyses and discussion of data along with results obtained on toxicity and mutagenicity were also performed. Besides correlation between some results, discrepancies were observed as well. For instance, the organic compound lindane had a weak toxicity, but the highest indices of genotoxicity, whereas the very toxic mercury was one of the least in terms of genotoxicity. The noted difference in values of toxicity, mutagenicity, genotoxicity, and cytotoxicity indicates the importance of using an integrated approach to toxicity testing which combines several methods to obtain a more objective and realistic estimation of a chemical toxicity. With this purpose, the trio of methods including the Muta-ChromoPlate test as a modified version of the standard Ames Fluctuation assay, the micronucleus assay, and the nucleolar biomarker are thus proposed for the routine monitoring of chemical toxicity. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Environ Toxicol 15: 338–344, 2000