Induction of sister-chromatid exchanges and cell cycle delay in cultured mammalian cells treated with eight organophosphorus pesticides.

Induction of sister-chromatid exchanges (SCE) and cell cycle delay in Chinese hamster cell line V79 after treatment with 8 organophosphorus pesticides (OPP) were studied. In addition, these effects were also studied using 1 of the 8 OPP in 2 human lymphoid cell lines. In V79 cells, 6 of the 8 OPP induced significant increase of frequencies of SCE and all the OPP induced various degrees of cell cycle delay. The 6 OPP in decreasing order of SCE induction are methylparathion, demeton, trichlorfon, dimethoate, malathion and methidathion. The 2 OPP that had no effect on SCE are diazion and disyston. The extents of induced cell cycle delay are generally related to the OPP concentrations but does not necessarily correlate with the extent of induction of SCE among the OPP studied. The results of studies on the effect of methyl-parathion on SCE and cell cycle delay in 2 human cell lines showed that both lines had significant and dose-dependent increase of SCE frequencies similar to those observed in V79 cells. In contrast to V79 cells, however, cell cycle delay was not as prominent in the human lines at comparable doses. These studies indicated that 5-bromodeoxyuridine labeling for analyzing SCE and cell cycle delay is a very sensitive method in assessing mutagenic potential of environmental compounds especially those that are highly toxic to and rapidly degradable in mammalian cells such as OPP.