Hepatocellular peroxisome proliferation and DNA synthesis in Wistar rats treated with herbicide fluazifop

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of herbicide fluazifop, on the early occurring changes in rat liver regarded as hepatic markers of peroxisome proliferators (PPs). Fluazifop was administered orally to male Wistar rats at increasing doses from 5.6 to 891 mg/kg body weight per day for 1, 2, 4, 7 and 14 consecutive days and peroxisome proliferation, induction of some peroxisome-associated enzymes and mitogenesis (S-phase, M-phase and percentage of binucleated hepatocytes) were studied. Short-term treatment of rats with fluazifop resulted in hepatomegaly due to time dependent proliferation of smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER) and peroxisomes. The increase in the number of peroxisomes in the hepatocytes was supported by an increase in peroxisomal palmitoyl-CoA oxidation and catalase activity. In contrast to other PPs fluazifop induced low rate of rcplicative DNA synthesis and did not affect mitoses (M-phase). DNA synthesis was accompanied by the appearance of binucleated hepatocytes. Thus, we can conclude that fluazifop produces in male Wistar rats hepatomegaly due to cellular hypertrophy. The threshold dose for palmitoyl-CoA oxidation and DNA synthesis was 112 and 223 mg/kg body weight per day, respectively. The value for hepatomegaly and catalase activity was 56 mg/kg body weight per day. The results presented in this paper demonstrated that fluazifop can be classified as a weak rodent PPs.