Aneugenic and clastogenic agents are good inducers of both micronuclei and apoptosis. In its turn, apoptosis may modify the threshold values for the induction of micronuclei. This is of major concern for accurate assessment of hazard related to exposure to mutagens. In the present work we studied the influence of caspases, the key regulators of the apoptotic process, on the induction of micronu...

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease characterized by persistent high levels of glucose in plasma. Chronic hyperglycemia is thought to increase oxidative stress and the formation of free radicals that in turn damage cells. Thus, we decided to determine the frequency of nuclear abnormalities in epithelial cells from cheek and tongue mucosa of DM patients with type 1 (DM1, treated only w...

Methotrexate is an antineopalstic agent widely used in low dose to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis. It is known to induce micronuclei at multiple doses in rats. The present study investigates the effect of vitamin A on methotrexate-induced micronuclei in rat bone marrow erythrocytes. Male wistar rats were (n=5) injected with 0, 8, 16 and20mg/kg methotrexate (single i.p dose). A group o...

BACKGROUND An estimated 800,000 people worldwide are occupationally exposed to welding-fumes. Previous studies show that the exposure to such fumes is associated with damage to genetic material and increased cancer risk. In this study, we evaluate the genotoxic effect of welding-fumes using the Micronucleus Test on oral mucosa cells of Mexican welders. MATERIAL AND METHODS We conducted a cros...

As part of a larger effort to provide proof-of-concept in vitro-only risk assessments, we have developed a suite of high-throughput assays for key readouts in the p53 DNA damage response toxicity pathway: double-strand break DNA damage (p-H2AX), permanent chromosomal damage (micronuclei), p53 activation, p53 transcriptional activity, and cell fate (cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, micronuclei). Do...

Onion (Allium cepa) and bean (Vicia faba) root tip cells containing many micronuclei, derived from x-ray-induced chromosome fragments, were exposed to H(3)-thymidine and H(3)-cytidine to determine the ability of such fragments to undergo DNA and RNA synthesis. Only a few micronuclei in onion and many in bean roots synthesize nucleic acid simultaneously with their main nuclei. A few micronuclei ...

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the rate of sister chromatid exchange (SCE), the occurrence of micronuclei, and the lymphocyte proliferation rate index (PRI) in patients with breast cancer, their first-degree relatives, and healthy volunteers. METHODS We analyzed the frequency of SCE and micronuclei, and the PRI in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of 30 women with br...

Background: Tobacco use continues to be prevalent in our society. It contains many substances which are genotoxic in nature. The genotoxicity of these substances can be studied in human peripheral blood lymphocytes by estimating the average number of micronuclei (MN) by cytokinesis block micronuclei assay (CBMN assay). Aims and objectives: To find out whether there is a difference in genotoxici...

The micronucleus (MN) assay on exfoliated buccal cells is a useful and minimally invasive method for monitoring genetic damage in humans. To determine the genotoxic effects of calcite dust that forms during processing, MN assay was carried out in exfoliated buccal cells of 50 (25 smokers and 25 non-smokers) calcite factory workers and 50 (25 smokers and 25 non-smokers) age- and sex-matched cont...

Tradescantia pallida cv. purpurea, a popular garden plant in Brazil, was used for the Tradescantia micronucleus (Trad-MCN) assay. In situ monitoring of the genotoxicity of air pollutants was carried out by sentinel approach, using the plant grown in the field or using the plants in pots which were carried to the monitoring sites. Two highly polluted sites, in São Paulo city (Cerqueira Cesar and...