Atrazine Genotoxicity on Human Placental Cells

Abstract

Atrazine is one of the most commonly used herbicides. After exposure to Atrazine during pregnancy, it can be found in placental tissue. We investigated the toxic effects of different Atrazine concentrations on human cytotrophoblasts. These cells were isolated from fresh placenta and were exposed to Atrazine for 24 hours. Our results showed that very low doses of Atrazine induced apoptotic placental cell death. It decreased the relative survival of human cytotrophoblastsup to 50% of control. It significantly decreased P53 and TNF-alpha genes expression while Bcl2 gene expression was increased insignificantly. Our findings suggested that exposure of placental cells to Atrazine even in low doses causes harmful effects, leading to adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preeclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction, prematurity and pregnancy loss.