Study of the correlation between blood cholinesterases activity, urinary dialkyl phosphates, and the frequency of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes in rats exposed to disulfoton

Abstract

Organophosphates (OPs) are widely used as pesticides, and its urinary metabolites as well as the blood cholinesterases (ChEs) activity have been reported as possible biomarkers for the assessment of this pesticide exposure. Moreover, the OPs can induce mutagenesis, and the bone marrow micronucleus test is an efficient way to assess this chromosomal damage. This paper reports a study carried out to verify the correlation among the disulfoton exposure, blood ChEs activity, urinary diethyl thiophosphate (DETP), and diethyl dithiophosphate (DEDTP), as well as micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (MNPCEs) frequency. Four groups of rats (n=12) were exposed to disulfoton at 0, 2.8, 4.7, and 6.6 mg kg-1 body weight. The blood ChEs activity, urinary DETP and DEDTP concentrations, and MNPCEs frequency were determined. It was observed that the plasmatic and erythrocytary ChEs activity decreased from 2.9% to 0.5% and from 35.9 to 3.3%, respectively, when the disulfoton dose was increased from 0 to 6.6 mg kg-1 (correlation of 0.99). Urinary DETP and DEDTP concentrations, as well as the MNPCEs frequency, increased from 0 to 6.58 µg mL-1, from 0 to 0.04 µg mL-1, and from 0 to 1.4%, respectively, when the disulfoton dose was increased from 0 to 6.58 mg kg-1 body weight.