The genotoxic effects of food additives sodium sorbate and potassium sorbate in human peripheral lymphocytes

In this study, the in vitro genotoxic effects of sodium sorbate and potassium sorbate which are frequently used in foods as antimicrobials, have been determined in human peripheral blood lymphocytes by using chromosome aberrations (CAs), sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs), micronuclei (MN) and comet assay. 100, 200, 400 and 800 µg/ml concentrations of sodium sorbate and 125, 250, 500 and 1000 µg/ml concentrations of potassium sorbate were used. Both food additives used in this study sifnificantly increased the frequency of chromosome aberrations and sister chromatid exchanges compared with the negative control. Micronuclei frequency statistically increased in 400 and 800 µg/ml concentration of sodium sorbate. Hovewer potassium sorbate did not effect the micronuclei frequency in human lymphocytes culture. 200 µg/ml concentration of sodium sorbate and 1000 µg/ml concentration of potassium sorbate significantly decreased the mitotic index compared with the negative control. Replication and nuclear division indices were not effected by the sodium sorbate and potassium sorbate. According to the comet assay results, primary DNA damage significantly increased by all treatments of both additives. The comet tail intensity and comet tail length (expect 400 µg/ml for tail lenght for sodium sorbate) significantly increased compared with the control in all treatments. The results of experiments showed that the additives used in this study have clastogenic and mutagenic and also DNA damaging effects in cultured and isolated human lymphocytes.Science Code: 203.1.048Key Words: Sodium sorbate, potassium sorbate, chromosomal aberration (CA), sister chromatid exchange (SCE), micronuclei (MN), comet assay, mitotic index (MI), replication index (RI), nuclear divison index (NDI), genotoxic effectPage Number: 85Adviser : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Deniz YÜZBAŞIOĞLU