DNA SINGLE-STRAND BREAKAGE IN RAT LUNG, LIVER AND KIDNEY AFTER SINGLEAND COMBINED TREATMENTS OF NICKEL AND CADMIUM

Single-strand breaks were observed in rat lung and kidney after acute treatment of animals with CdCl2 (4 mg/kg body weight) injected intrape ritoneally and NiCl2 (44.4 mg/kg body weight) injected subcutaneously. In the rat liver, no single-strand breakage was evident with those do ses in single and combined metal treatments. The most susceptible tiss ue in rats to cadmium or nickel chloride treatment was the lung tissue . The single-strand breaks were higher in cadmium treatment than in ni ckel treatment in the rat lung. Also the response to cadmium treatment was obtained earlier than nickel. Rat kidney was also responsive to c admium treatment. However, the response, although statistically signif icant, was much lower than the one obtained in rat lung. The combined treatment, which was done by administrating cadmium prior to nickel ad ministration, reduced the number of single-strand breaks significantly and reversed them to control values in rat lung and kidney. This stud y confirms that cadmium and nickel create single-strand breaks when ad ministered alone in the rat lung. This effect, which was seen in the s ingle metal treatments, was reduced in the combined treatments. (C) 19 97 Elsevier Science B.V.