Synergistic effect of isopropanol on induction of mitotic aberrations in Allium cepa

Soil from a site heavily contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls and several other organic and inorganic compounds was remediated by treatment with a mobile solvent extraction system. The genotoxicity of the soil, as measured by the induction of anaphase aberrations in Allium cepa root tip cells, increased after the remediation process. This increase appeared to be due to synergism between the residual solvent and genotoxic components not removed by the solvent extraction process. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether isopropanol, at concentrations similar to residual amounts following remediation, induced a synergistic response with the known clastogen, 4-nitroquinoline n-oxide (4-NQO). Bulblets of Allium cepa (common onion) were exposed for 24 h to varying concentrations of isopropanol combined with 0.10 mg/14-NQO in aqueous solution. The root tips were examined for mitotic index (MI), and cells in late anaphase/early telophase were scored for mitotic aberrations (MA, i.e., bridges, fragments, and lagging chromosomes). MI and MA frequencies were transformed by the arcsin square root function prior to statistical analysis (ANOVA). Isopropanol by itself did not induce MA and did not affect the Ml, either alone or in combination with 4-NQO. However, isopropanol enhanced the 4-NQO induced MA response by 1.4 foldmore » at 1.0 mg/ml (p-value = 0.13) and 2.0 fold at 1.2 mg/ml (p-value = 0.006). Lower concentrations of 0.3 and 0.1 mg/ml isopropanol had no effect. The results demonstrate that residual solvents can increase the genotoxicity of soils, presumably as a result of enhancing the bioavailability of genotoxic components.« less