Evaluation of genotoxic and cytotoxic effects in human peripheral blood lymphocytes exposed in vitro to neonicotinoid insecticides news

Calypso (thiacloprid),poncho (clothianidin),gaucho (imidacloprid),and jade (imidacloprid) are commercial neonicotinoid insecticides,a new class of agrochemicals in méxico. however,genotoxic and cytotoxic studies have not been performed. in the present study,human peripheral blood lymphocytes (pbl) were exposed in vitro to different concentrations of the four insecticides. the genotoxic and cytotoxic effects were evaluated using the alkaline comet and trypan blue dye exclusion assays. dna damage was evaluated using two genotoxicity parameters: tail length and comet frequency. exposure to 9.5 10 -6 to 5.7 10 -5 m jade; 2.8 10 -4 to 1.7 10 -3 m gaucho; 0.6 10 -1 to 1.4 10 -1 m calypso; 1.2 10 -1 to 9.5 10 -1 m poncho for 2h induced a significant increase dna damage with a concentration-dependent relationship. jade was the most genotoxic of the four insecticides studied. cytotoxicity was observed in cells exposed to 18 10 -3 m jade,2.0 10 -3 m gaucho,2.0 10 -1 m calypso,1.07m poncho,and cell death occurred at 30 10 -3 m jade,3.3 10 -3 m gaucho,2.8 10 -1 m calypso,and 1.42m poncho. this study provides the first report of genotoxic and cytotoxic effects in pbl following in vitro exposure to commercial neonicotinoid insecticides. copyright © 2012 mara elena caldern-segura et al.