Micronucleus index of rats treated with sodium nitrite can be amplified by sodium chloride
Fariba Koohdani and Parvin Mehdipour
Objective: The possible effect of sodium chloride as an amplifier of sodium nitrite co-carcinogenicity was assayed by in vivo experiments.
Research Methods & Procedures: 18 male rats who matched for age and weight were tested for this experiment. They were at age of 8 weeks and weight of them was around 190 grams. They were exposed to the same environmental conditions, and they were divided into 3 groups: 1- The unexposed rats who were not under any special treatment (C group); 2- Rats who were treated twice with sodium nitrite in a dose of 5.18 mg/kg body weight, with an interval of 24 hours (N group); 3- Rats who were given sodium nitrite the same as second group, 24 hours after a single application of 1 ml of saturated sodium chloride solution (29 percent) (SN group). The bone marrow samplings were performed and the micronuclei index was evaluated in all three groups.
Results: Sodium chloride combined with nitrite induced the significant elevation of micronuclei count in the SN group (p<0.001). But sodium nitrite without sodium chloride did not have the same effect. Conclusions. The data offers a possible amplification of sodium nitrite’s co-carcinogenicity by sodium chloride in rats.
Keywords: carcinogenesis; micronuclei; sodium chloride; sodium nitrite