Genotoxicity evaluation of drinking water sources in human peripheral bloodlymphocytes using the comet assay
WU Yulin , CHEN Haigang , LI Zhaoli , SUN Liwei , QU Mengmeng , LI Mei , KONG Zhiming
DOI:
Received July 03, 2007,Revised December 05, 2007, Accepted , Available online
Volume 20,2008,Pages 487-491
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The potential harm of organic pollutants in drinking water to human health is widely focused on in the world; more and more
pollutants with genotoxic substances are released into the aquatic environment. Water source samples were collected from 7 di erent
localities of Nanjing City. The potential genotoxicity of organic extracts from drinking water sources were investigated by means of the
comet assay in human peripheral lymphocytes. The results showed that all the organic extracts from all the water source samples could
induce DNA damages of human peripheral blood lymphocytes at di erent levels. A significant di erence (P < 0.01) was observed when
compared with the solvent control. The DNA damage increased with the increase of the dosage of the original water source. Significant
di erences of DNA damage were observed in di erent drinking water sources, as shown by the multiple comparisons analysis at the
dosage of 100 ; the degree of DNA damage treated by Hushu waterworks (at town level) was the most serious, the arbitrary units (AU)
was 141.62 6.96, however, that of Shangyuanmen waterworks (at city level) was only 109.64 2.97. The analysis also revealed that the
genotoxicity of town’s water sources was higher than that of the city. The results demonstrated that the comet assay can be successfully
applied to the genotoxicity monitoring programs of drinking water sources.
