chromosomal aberration, comet assay and cyp 1a1 gen evaluation iN individually exposed to 27 kinds of pesticides and glyphosate IN ECUADOR, SOUTH AMERICA

C ésar Paz-y-Miño, María Eugenia Sánchez, Melissa Arévalo, Paola E. Leone.

Laboratorio de Genética Molecular y Citogenética Humana. Escuela de Ciencias Biologícas and Unidad de Genética. Facultad de Medicina. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador . P.O. BOX: 17-01-2184 Quito . E-Mail: cpazymino@puce.edu.ec

Ecuador is a country in South America , it has 4,000 kilometers of beach and 100,000 Km 2 approximately, it has a direct relation with the coast of Pacific Ocean . The use of pesticides is frequently for disease control and agriculture in all of the countries, some of them are hazardous according to the classification of the World Health Organization. In Ecuador there is an increase of malformations, cancer and degenerative diseases. Many organizations denounce the indiscriminate use of pesticides, which is one of the reasons for this investigation. We analyzed the workers of a flower plantation, and the consequences of aerial spraying with Glyphosate added surfactants in the northern part of Ecuador . The chromosomal aberrations (CA) test and the comet assay were used for human biomonitoring. The findings were correlated with the polymorphisms of the exon 7 of CYP1A1 (Msp I and Ile/Val) gene by PCR-RFLP and allele-specific PCR techniques. The study of CYP gene was included, because some researches show that polymorphisms have an association with cancer susceptibility. A total of 86 subjects exposed to pesticides and 24 individuals exposed to Glyphosate were analyzed. The control group was formed by 62 healthy individuals of the same age, sex and geographical areas. In the pesticide exposed group, the results showed significantly higher levels of chromosomal aberrations (15.77 +13%) compared to those of controls (3.18 +1.2%). In the Glyphosate exposed group we found 22.42% of CAs compared to those of controls with 1.38%. The comet assay showed a higher grade of DNA damage in the pesticide (28 µm) and in the Glyphosate exposed group (35 µm) compared to the mean value of control group (25.94 µm). In the pesticide and Glyphosate exposed group, the polymorphisms of CYP1A1 gene did not show a correlation with the level of DNA damage. These results suggest that the pesticides and Glyphosate, has a genotoxic effect on exposed individuals.

Key Words: Pesticides, Glyphosate; comet assay; chromosomal aberrations; CYP1A1 gene polymorphism; genotoxicity.