The major concern for the halogenated compounds is their widespread distribution, in addition to occupational exposures. Several chlorinated
alkanes and
alkenes were found to induce toxic effects. In this study, we investigated the genotoxic potential of
1,1-dichloroethane in the bone marrow cells obtained from Swiss-Webster mice, using
chromosomal aberrations (CA), mitotic index (MI), and micronuclei (MN) formation as toxicological endpoints. Five groups of three male mice each, weighing an average of 24 +/- 2 g, were injected intraperitoneally, once with doses of 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 mg/kg
body weight (BW) of
1,1-dichloroethane dissolved in
ethanol. A control group was also made of three animals injected with
ethanol (1%) without the chemical. All animals were sacrificed 24 hours after the treatment. Chromosome and micronuclei preparations were obtained from bone marrow cells following standard protocols. Chromatid and
chromosome aberrations were investigated in 100 metaphase cells per animal and percent micronuclei frequencies were investigated in 1,000 metaphase cells per animal.
1,1-dichloroethane exposures significantly increased the number of
chromosomal aberrations and the frequency of micronucleated cells in the bone marrow cells of Swiss-Webster mice. Percent
chromosomal aberrations of 2.67 +/- 0.577, 7.66 +/- 2.89, 8.33 +/- 2.08, 14.67 +/- 2.51, 20.3 +/- 3.21, 28 +/- 3.61; mitotic index of 9.4%, 7.9%, 6.2%, 4.3%, 3.0%, 2.6% and micronuclei frequencies of 3.33 +/- 0.7, 7.33 +/- 0.9, 8.00 +/- 1.0, 11.67 +/- 1.2, 15.33 +/- 0.7, 18.00 +/- 1.7 were recorded for the control, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 mg/kg BW respectively; indicating a gradual increase in number of
chromosomal aberrations and micronuclei formation, with increasing dose of 1,1,-dichloroethane. Our results indicate that
1,1-dichloroethane has a genotoxic potential as measured by the bone marrow CA and MN tests in Swiss-Webster mice.