Clastogenic effects of inorganic arsenic salts on human chromosomes in vitro

Abstract

Arsenic is well documented as a paradoxical human carcinogen. In West Bengal, several million people were found to be arsenic affected who were exposed to this metalloid principally through drinking water. The arsenic-contaminated drinking water contains both trivalent as well as pentavalent arsenic. In this study, the comparative in vitro cytogenetic effects of two inorganic salts of arsenic, trivalent sodium arsenite (NaAsO₂) and pentavalent sodium arsenate (Na₂HAsO4) in three different concentrations, were screened for damage to chromosome and cell division following exposure to human lymphocyte culture. The chromosome-breaking activities in cultured lymphocytes were significantly higher for the compounds with trivalent (NaAsO₂) than with pentavalent arsenic (Na₂HAsO₄), as reflected by the higher chromosomal aberration percentage in the similar doses used. It suggests that sodium arsenite was considerably more clastogenic than sodium arsenate. Moreover, increases in chromosomal aberrations were proportional with the increased dose of exposure for both trivalent and pentavalent forms of arsenic.

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Secretary, Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, for kind permission to use the laboratory for this work and Dr. Geeta Tulukder, MD. PhD, Senior Consultant Scientist, Department of Pathology, for her valuable suggestions. Financial support from the National Tea Research Foundation, India is gratefully acknowledged.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no financial conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this paper.