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Title: Induction of chromosome aberrations by Fusarium T-2 toxin in cultured human peripheral blood lymphocytes and Chinese hamster fibroblasts

Conference · · J. Cell. Physiol., Suppl.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6934218

T-2 toxin is an important representative of trichothecenes produced by various species of imperfect fungi, mainly Fusarium genus. No definite data demonstrating the carcinogenic potential of T-2 toxin had been reported up to now. The authors demonstrated that T-2 toxin reproducibly induced chromosomal structural aberrations both in cultured human peripheral blood lymphocytes as well as in V/sub 79/ Chinese hamster fibroblasts. The mean percentage of cells with aberration of human lymphocytes from normal individuals induced by T-2 toxin is 49-fold (9.8%) of the mean percentage of corresponding control cultures without T-2 toxin (0.2%). T-2 toxin induced chromosome type (76%) as well as chromatid type (24%) of aberrations; among them, acentric fragment (46%) was the most common type, and chromatid gap, deletion, and chromosome gap were the next most common. T-2 toxin can induce aberrations in cells at different phases of the cell cycle. There are definite dose-effect relationships within a certain range of dosage of T-2 toxin in experiments with both human peripheral blood lymphocytes and V/sub 79/ cells. T-2 toxin exhibited three types of effects on cells, namely, mitogenic at lowest concentration, clastogenic (chromosome aberration) at median concentration, and cytotoxic at higher concentration. The dose-effect curves of these three effects are partly overlapping. Sex or age effect was not observed. The results suggest that T-2 toxin has carcinogenic potentials. The dosage of aflatoxin that can induce chromosomal aberration of human peripheral blood lymphocytes is thousands-fold of the dosage of T-2 toxin as shown in this report.

Research Organization:
Cancer Institute, Beijing, China
OSTI ID:
6934218
Journal Information:
J. Cell. Physiol., Suppl.; (United States), Vol. 4; Conference: Proceedings of an international symposium on cancer: perspective for control, Beijing, China, 18-21 Aug 1985
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English