Genotoxicity studies of three triazine herbicides: in vivo studies using the alkaline single cell gel (SCG) assay

Triazine herbicides are prevalent contaminants of groundwater in the agricultural regions of the United States. The literature on the genotoxicity of triazines is rife with conflicting data, though the general tendency is for most studies to report negative results. In order to investigate further the genotoxicity of triazines, we exposed mice to triazines by intraperitoneal injection up to the maximum tolerated doses. About 24h later, blood was removed, and the leukocytes subjected to DNA damage analysis using the alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis assay (SCG), one of the most sensitive DNA damage assays available. Our results indicate that atrazine induced a small dose-related increase in DNA damage. Simazine did not induce any dose-related increase in DNA damage. Cyanazine induced a marginal increase in DNA damage with dose, but no individual dose was significantly increased compared to the control. These results indicate that these triazines, even at extremely high concentrations, have only marginal DNA-damaging activity in vivo in mouse leukocytes.