The genotoxic effects of sodium nitrate and propyl gallate on human lymphocytes using micronucleus assay

With the increase in the production of processed and convenience foods, food additives have become an increasingly important practice in modern food technology. Although food additives continue to cause concern in today’s food supply, many studies revealed the potential genotoxic or mutagenic effects of the additives. In this study, the genetic effects of sodium nitrate (SN) and propyl gallate (PG)on cultured human lymphocytes were evaluated by using in vitro Micronucleus (MN) test. No studies have been carried out, to our knowledge, despite the fact that SN and PG are commonly used. Experiments were performed using human peripheral blood lymphocytes from two healthy volunteers) a man and a woman(. The lymphocyte cultures were treated with different concentrations of SN (500,1000, 2000 ppm) and PG (1, 5,10 ppm) for 24, 48 and 72 h. Micronuclei were scored from 2000 binucleated cells (BN) per treatment. For the statistical analysis, the Mann-Whitney test was applied. The MN test demonstrated that SN induced a concentration-dependent increase in the number of micronucleus for 24 and 48 h. However, 72 h treatments lead to reduce in the number of micronucleus compared with the control group. In addition, PG increased the micronucleus formation in all the treatments for 24 h and significantly decreased in all the treatments for 48 h and 72 h. In conclusion, from the present study, it appears that SN and PG, which are used commonly in the food industry, have clear genotoxic effects on human lymphocytes. For this reason it is necessary to be careful when using these chemicals as food additives. Further cytogenetic studies dealing with clastogenicity and genotoxicity of these food additives may reveal further interesting results

کلیدواژه ها:

Cell and Cancer ، Cancer Risks ، Nutrition and Cancer ، Multidisciplinary Cancer Research ، Cancer Treatment and Management