Open AccessComet Assay results of pilots exposed to pesticides
Author(s) -
Carmen Martínez-Valenzuela,
Stefan M. Waliszewski,
María Elena Calderón-Segura,
Mario Caba,
Enrique Meza,
Sandra GómezArroyo,
Omar Amador-Muñóz,
Rafael VillalobosPietrini,
J. Huichapan Martínez,
Luis Daniel Ortega Martínez
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
acta universitaria
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2007-9621
pISSN - 0188-6266
DOI - 10.15174/au.2018.1410
Subject(s) - comet assay , pesticide , toxicology , analysis of variance , dna damage , population , biomonitoring , mann–whitney u test , nonparametric statistics , statistics , biology , medicine , mathematics , chemistry , environmental health , environmental chemistry , genetics , dna , ecology
Pesticides constitute a heterogeneous category of chemicals designed for the control of pests affecting cultivated plants. Frequently, they are classified according to their chemical structure, organic and non-organic pesticides. Biomonitoring studies using somatic cells have been conducted to evaluate the possible genotoxic risk of occupationally exposed workers to pesticides. The aim of this study was to assess the genotoxic effects of pesticides in pilots occupationally exposed to these chemicals during aerial application in agricultural fields. The study groups comprised 30 pilots who applied aerial pesticides and 30 controls. The alkaline Comet Assay was performed on freshly collected peripheral whole blood lymphocytes. The nonparametric Mann-Whitney test was applied to compare the equality of two population medians. Additionally, a comparison of two groups according to age and years of work as quantitative variables and a one-way analysis of variance (Anova) with Tukey’s post hoc test were applied. To corroborate differences between groups, a regression analysis was performed to calculate the degree of correlation, expressing their magnitude by R2. Statistical significances were set at a p value of <0.05. The median of comet frequency, tail length (159.6 ± 16.8) and tail moment (16.75 ± 3.13) reveals statistically significant differences (p < 0.001) between exposed pilots and controls. The pilot group divided according to age reveals Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage which increases significantly when age of participant increases. Neither smoking nor alcohol consumption could be statistically linked to DNA damage.