The cytogenetic effects of the
insecticides Gardona and
Dursban were investigated. The toxicity and ability of both
insecticides to induce
chromosome aberrations and sister-chromatid exchange in vitro was tested in a primary culture of mouse spleen cells, in order to assess the potential mutagenicity of both
insecticides. The concentrations 10(-7)-10(-3) M were used for testing the toxic effects of the
insecticides. Both
Gardona and
Dursban were toxic to spleen cell cultures and the percentage of viable cells decreased as the concentration of the
insecticide was increased. It reached 76.8% and 77.8% of control
after treatment with the highest concentration tested (10(-3) M) of
Gardona and
Dursban respectively.
Gardona at 0.25, 0.50, 1.0 and 2.0 micrograms/ml, and
Dursban at 0.50, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 micrograms/ml were tested for the induction of
chromosome aberrations and sister-chromatid exchanges. All of the tested concentrations of both
insecticides induced a high percentage of metaphases with
chromosomal aberrations in cultured mouse spleen cells after 4-h treatment. The frequency of SCEs/cell increased with increasing concentration of the
insecticides. It reached 11.92 +/- 0.14/cell and 13.40 +/- 0.20/cell
after treatment with
Gardona (2 micrograms/ml) and
Dursban (4 micrograms/ml), respectively, compared with 8.2 +/- 0.19/cell and 7.6 +/- 0.15/cell in the
solvent control. The presented results indicate that both
Gardona and
Dursban in the tested concentrations are mutagenic in mouse spleen cell cultures.