Meléndez-Flórez María Paula, Valbuena Duvan Sebastián, Cepeda Sebastián, Rangel Nelson, Forero-Castro Maribel, Martínez-Agüero María, Rondón-Lagos Milena
School of Biological Sciences, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, Tunja, Colombia.
Departamento de Nutrición y Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia.
Front Genet. 2022 Feb 24;13:820209. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.820209. eCollection 2022.
Pesticides are a group of environmental pollutants widely used in agriculture to protect crops, and their indiscriminate use has led to a growing public awareness about the health hazards associated with exposure to these substances. In fact, exposure to pesticides has been associated with an increased risk of developing diseases, including cancer. In a study previously published by us, we observed the induction of specific chromosomal alterations and, in general, the deleterious effect of pesticides on the chromosomes of five individuals exposed to pesticides. Considering the importance of our previous findings and their implications in the identification of cytogenetic biomarkers for the monitoring of exposed populations, we decided to conduct a new study with a greater number of individuals exposed to pesticides. Considering the above, the aim of this study was to evaluate the type and frequency of chromosomal alterations, chromosomal variants, the level of chromosomal instability and the clonal heterogeneity in a group of thirty-four farmers occupationally exposed to pesticides in the town of Simijacá, Colombia, and in a control group of thirty-four unexposed individuals, by using Banding Cytogenetics and Molecular Cytogenetics (Fluorescence hybridization). Our results showed that farmers exposed to pesticides had significantly increased frequencies of chromosomal alterations, chromosomal variants, chromosomal instability and clonal heterogeneity when compared with controls. Our results confirm the results previously reported by us, and indicate that occupational exposure to pesticides induces not only chromosomal instability but also clonal heterogeneity in the somatic cells of people exposed to pesticides. This study constitutes, to our knowledge, the first study that reports clonal heterogeneity associated with occupational exposure to pesticides. Chromosomal instability and clonal heterogeneity, in addition to reflecting the instability of the system, could predispose cells to acquire additional instability and, therefore, to an increased risk of developing diseases.
农药是一类广泛用于农业以保护农作物的环境污染物，其滥用已使公众越来越意识到接触这些物质对健康的危害。事实上，接触农药与包括癌症在内的疾病发病风险增加有关。在我们之前发表的一项研究中，我们观察到了特定染色体改变的诱导情况，总体而言，还观察到了农药对五名接触农药个体的染色体的有害影响。考虑到我们之前研究结果的重要性及其在识别用于监测接触人群的细胞遗传学生物标志物方面的意义，我们决定对更多接触农药的个体进行一项新的研究。鉴于上述情况，本研究的目的是通过使用染色体显带技术和分子细胞遗传学（荧光杂交），评估哥伦比亚西米亚卡镇34名职业性接触农药的农民以及34名未接触农药的个体组成的对照组中的染色体改变类型和频率、染色体变异、染色体不稳定水平和克隆异质性。我们的结果表明，与对照组相比，接触农药的农民的染色体改变、染色体变异、染色体不稳定和克隆异质性频率显著增加。我们的结果证实了我们之前报道的结果，并表明职业性接触农药不仅会诱导染色体不稳定，还会导致接触农药人群体细胞中的克隆异质性。据我们所知，本研究是第一项报道与职业性接触农药相关的克隆异质性的研究。染色体不稳定和克隆异质性除了反映系统的不稳定性外，还可能使细胞更容易获得额外的不稳定性，从而增加患病风险。
