Comparative studies of in vivo genotoxic effects of cadmium chloride in rat brain, kidney and liver cells.

Cadmium chloride-induced DNA damage was investigated in individual brain, kidney and liver cells isolated from rats gavaged 14 mg/kg/day cadmium chloride. Animals were sacrificed on days 2, 4, 8, 16, and 33, and DNA damage was determined using the recently developed alkaline microgel electrophoresis technique. Data for DNA migration from 50 randomly selected cells clearly show significant increases in DNA damage in cells from three different organs of cadmium chloride gavaged animals compared to saline treated control animals (33 day control, brain 64.7 +/- 5.3, kidney 75.5 +/- 9.4, liver 67.9 +/- 5.7 microm; 33 days experimental, brain 284.3 +/- 16.9, kidney 397.9 +/- 11.3, liver 315 +/- 22.5 microm; these values represent length of exposure in days and length of DNA migration in micron). There was an increase in DNA damage for all three cell types, with increasing duration of treatment. Cadmium (CdCl2) induced levels of DNA single strand breaks were more pronounced in kidney cells than in cells from the other two organs. Body and organ weights decreased of treated animals were decreased as compared to control. Results of this study indicate a potential of cadmium to be a genotoxic compound.