The genotoxic efects of alphachlorhydrin in BALB/C laboratory mice

The genotoxic properties of different doses (7, 5, 15 and 30 mg/kg body mas s) of alphachlorchydrin were investigated in vivo in BALB/C mice and in vit ro using cell cultures. Thus, mouse bone marrow cells were examined after e xposure for 10/20 and 30 days under in vivo conditions, while cultures of m ouse fibroblasts were examined after exposure for 2, 3 and 5 days under in vitro conditions. The genotoxic effects of this chemosterilant vere evaluated on the basis of numerical and structural aberrations in the three experimental groups for each dose and each length of exposure in comparison with control groups. Fr om the results obtained, it may be concluded that alphachlorchydrin in the tested doses caused genotoxic effects both in bone marrow cells and in cell cultures of mouse fibroblasts. The number of numerical aberrations increas ed with increase indoseor length of exposure, although the differences were not statistically significant (p>0.05). The increase in the number of stru ctural aberrations in bone marrow cells from mice treated with 30 mg alphac hlorhydrin per kg body mass was statistically significant (p<0.01) when com pared with the effect of the 7.5 mg/kg dose. Significant differences concer ning numerical and structural aberrations were also found between the treat ed groups and the control group.