Micronucleus formation induced by the combination of low doses of X-rays and antineoplastic drugs in bone marrow of male mice

Abstract

People are widely exposed during their lifetime to many biological, chemical, and physical agents in the environment and at work. In this paper the effects of combined exposures of nonmutagenic doses of X-rays and anticancer agents (cyclophosphamide, mitomycin C, and vinblastine) have been investigated on the induction of micronuclei in the bone marrow of laboratory mice. The combination of X-rays and anticancer drugs enhanced the frequency of micronuclei in some cases. The strongest effects were found after the combination of X-rays and cyclophosphamide at 24 h and 72 h. The combined treatment of X-rays and mitomycin C enhanced the mutagenic effect at 72 h. The combination of X-rays + vinblastine slightly potentiated the mutagenic effect at 24 h and 48 h.

The Combination Cyclophosphamide with Radiation Increases Tumour Cure in Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma Bearing Mice as well as DNA Damage in the Normal Mice Bone Marrow Exposed to Different Doses of Γ-Radiation

“…This may be the reason for the elevation of MN in CPA+irradiation group when compared to the SPS + irradiation group. Similar observations have been reported for the combined treatment of 25mg/kg body weight of CPA with X-ray [68,69]. However, the significance of our study lies in the fact that the dose of CPA used is extremely low (1/500 th of the LD 50 ) and even the healthcare workers when administering the drug can encounter such a low dose.…”

The effects in mice of combined treatments to X-rays and antineoplastic drugs in the Comet assay

“…Results presented here agree with the results of the induction of micronuclei in mouse bone marrow after exposure to a similar dose range of X-rays, anticancer drugs and to a combination of both agents (Dobrzyńska and Gajewski, 1999;Dobrzyńska, 2000). These results support the idea that both micronuclei and Comet assays could complement each other in the investigation of genotoxic effects of physical and chemical agents.…”