The effect of glyphosate on the frequency of micronuclei in bovine lymphocytes in vitro

Abstract

Glyphosate is a widely used broad-spectrum herbicide that has expanded its applications on plant varieties that are genetically modified to tolerate glyphosate treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of micronuclei (MNi) in bovine peripheral lymphocytes after exposure to glyphosate in vitro. The cytokinesis block micronucleus assay (CBMN) for estimation of genotoxic activity was used. The obtained results indicate that glyphosate weakly induced micronuclei in bovine peripheral lymphocytes. Significant elevations of MNi (p <0.05) were observed at concentrations of glyphosate of 280 μW and 560 μW, respectively. Treatment of bovine lymphocytes did not result in the induction of micronuclei in a dose-dependent manner. From cytotoxicity data it is evident that CBPI does not reflect the reduction of cell proliferation. The influence of metabolic activation on the genotoxic activity of glyphosate was investigated, too. When lymphocyte cultures were treated with glyphosate together with a liver membrane fraction (S9) from Aroclor 1245-induced rat liver, the number of micronuclei in binucleated cells did not increase significantly.