Fumagillin is a naturally secreted
antibiotic of the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. It is used in veterinary medicine against
microsporidiosis of bees and fish. In this study, the genotoxicity of
fumagillin (in the form of
fumagillin dicyclohexylamine) was evaluated in mouse bone-marrow cells using the mitotic index (MI), the
chromosome aberration (CA) assay, and the micronucleus (MN) test.
Fumagillin was administered to BALB/c mice by gavage, at doses of 25, 50, 75 mg/kg
body weight (bw), repeated for 7 days at 24-h intervals, with water-
sugar syrup as a negative control and
cyclophosphamide (40 mg/kg bw) as a positive control. All experimental doses of
fumagillin induced a significant decrease (p<0.001) in MI (3.47+/-0.04%, 3.17+/-0.01%, and 2.27+/-0.02%, respectively) in comparison with the negative control (6.00+/-0.01%).
Fumagillin significantly (p<0.001) increased the frequency of MN (4.98+/-0.35, 8.45+/-0.57, and 12.02+/-0.37, respectively) over negative control (1.04+/-0.28). Significantly increased frequencies (p<0.01 or p<0.001) of numerical
chromosomal aberrations (
aneuploidies and
polyploidies) and structural
chromosomal aberrations such as gaps, breaks, and centric rings were observed at the highest experimental dose of
fumagillin (75 mg/kg bw) compared with the negative control. However, with respect to the induction of Robertsonian translocations, both the intermediate (50 mg/kg bw) and highest (75 mg/kg bw) experimental dose caused a significant (p<0.001) increase (7.12+/-0.26 and 9.00+/-0.10, respectively) in comparison with the negative control (0.00+/-0.00). Chromosomes 4 and 19 participated in these Robertsonian translocations. Regarding total cytogenetic changes, a significant increase (p<0.001) was observed in both the intermediate dose group (17.36+/-1.83) and the highest dose group (59.49+/-1.92) compared with the negative control (7.00+/-1.35). These results suggest that
fumagillin has genotoxic (clastogenic) potential in mammals in vivo.