Mitosis inhibitory and clastogenic effects of waters from anthropogenically affected areas

The present study aims to analyse the effect of waters, anthropogenically influenced by various pollutants, on the mitotic division and chromosomal apparatus of cells by establishing their potential mitoinhibitory and clastogenic effect. The cytotoxic and mutagenic effect of contaminated water was examined by the application of the Allium cepa test system. Mitotic depression has been established for samples with available anthropogenic contamination. Microscopic analysis showed an increased incidence of chromosomal aberrations in the test samples compared to the control, resulting from the genotoxic effect available. Chromosomal abnormalities of the type of lagging and ‘vagrant’ chromosomes, chromosomal fragments, anaphase and telophase bridges, micronuclei, as well as deviations from normal cell division such as K-mitoses and asynchronous mitoses have been observed. The analysis of the spectrum of chromosomal aberrations shows some differences in the frequency of occurrence of the different types of disorders, which reflects the specificity of the genotoxic effect of the water samples from the surveyed areas.