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Genotoxicity of food preservative sodium sorbate in human lymphocytes in vitro

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Abstract

The genotoxic effects of antimicrobial food additive sodium sorbate (SS) was assessed by using chromosome aberrations (CAs), sister-chromatid exchanges (SCEs), and micronucleus (MN) in cultured human lymphocytes and comet assay in isolated human lymphocytes. Lymphocytes were treated with four concentrations (100, 200, 400 and 800 μg/ml) of SS as well as a negative (sterile distilled water) and a positive control (Mitomycin-C: MMC for cultured lymphocytes and H2O2 for isolated lymphocytes). The result of this study indicated that SS increased the frequency of CAs at both 24 and 48 h period compared to control. When gaps were included, this increase was significant at 200, 400 and 800 μg/ml concentrations at 24 h and, at all concentrations at 48 h treatment time. When gaps were excluded, this increase was significant at only 800 μg/ml concentration at both 24 and 48 h treatments. In addition, SS increased SCEs/cell and MN frequency at 400 and 800 μg/ml concentrations at both 24 and 48 h compared to negative control. Furthermore, this additive caused DNA damage at all concentrations in isolated human lymphocytes after 1 h in vitro exposure. The present results show that SS is genotoxic to the human peripheral blood lymphocytes in vitro at the highest concentrations.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Gazi University Research Fund under Project No: 05/2007-50.

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The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Genetic Toxicology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

    Sevcan Mamur, Deniz Yüzbaşıoğlu & Fatma Ünal

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Art and Science, Sakarya University, Sakarya, Turkey

    Hüseyin Aksoy

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  1. Sevcan Mamur
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  2. Deniz Yüzbaşıoğlu
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  3. Fatma Ünal
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  4. Hüseyin Aksoy
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Correspondence to Deniz Yüzbaşıoğlu.

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Mamur, S., Yüzbaşıoğlu, D., Ünal, F. et al. Genotoxicity of food preservative sodium sorbate in human lymphocytes in vitro. Cytotechnology 64, 553–562 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-012-9434-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-012-9434-5

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