Low-level atrazine exposure decreases cell proliferation in human fibroblasts

There is continuing concern that release of certain chemicals into the environment leads to human exposure to toxins, particularly through contaminated ground and surface waters. The triazine herbicide atrazine (2-chloro-4-ethylamine-6-isopropylamino-S-triazine) is routinely found as a contaminant in many surface and groundwaters. Little is known of the long-term effects of atrazine exposure on human cells. The objective of this research was to examine whether low-level exposure of atrazine to normal human fibroblast cells in culture had measurable deleterious effects. We show that low-level, short-term exposure of atrazine to normal fibroblasts results in decreased cell proliferation. In two separate assays to measure cell proliferation, either a 1.5-fold decrease in the cell number occurred (saturation density analysis) or a 2-fold decrease in cell proliferation was found (MTT analysis). Experiments to measure apoptosis in cells exposed to low levels of atrazine did not show DNA fragmentation or increased caspase activity. Thus, this analysis shows that short-term exposure to environmentally relevant, low levels of atrazine can be assessed by a decrease in cellular proliferation of normal human cells.