Oxidative response and micronucleus centromere assay in HEp-2 cells exposed to fungicide Iprodione.

The fungicide agents are a key component in the fruits and vegetables production. The Iprodione residues is one of the pesticide more frequently found in food products. The available data about the cytotoxicity of iprodione and its metabolites are scarce and do not allow to characterize its genotoxic potential and define the risk assessment .The human larynx epidermoid carcinoma cell line (HEp-2) it has been shown to be sensitive to the toxic effects of xenobiotics of different origin and have been often used in citotoxicity and genotoxicity studies. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the induction of genotoxicity and the role of oxidative stress in HEp-2cell line by exposure to the IP. The MTT test for viability resulted in CL50 85.86 (77.05 - 95.68) μg/ml of Iprodione. Based on this result we proceeded to expose the cells to the sub-lethal concentrations (below the CL50) during 24 h to analyze the mitotic index and nuclear division index in order to determine the sub-cytotoxic concentrations of IP which the genotoxicity was evaluated. The sub cytotoxic concentrations 7, 17 and 25 µg/ml IP induced aneugenic effects as micronuclei centromere positive whereas 17 µg/ml was a threshold for centromere negative micronuclei induction in HEp-2 cells. The abnormal mitosis were induced for exposition of Hep-2 cells to the three concentrations. According to the result obtained to citotoxicity and genotoxicity oxidative stress studies were performed in 1.5, 7.0 and 25 µg/ml of IP. The results showed that the GSH intracellular content, the SOD activity and the levels of oxidative damage of the proteins were affected lead to redox imbalance, The decreased in the SOD activity and protein oxidation were in according to the result obtained to genotoxicity, suggesting that different biological targets could be affected.