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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

Clonogenic Assay: Adherent Cells
Published on: March 13, 2011
Bracken-fern extracts can be clastogenic or aneugenic depending on the tissue cell assay
Maria de Fátima M Almeida Santos1, José G Dórea, Helena Luna
1Departamento de Genética e Morfologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade de Brasília, 70910-900 Brasília, DF, Brazil.
Abstract:
The consumption of bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) as food is associated with a high incidence of cancer in humans and animals. We investigated the cytogenetic effects of bracken-fern extracts (hexane extract-HE, ethanol extract-EE, hot water extract-HWE and cold water extract-CWE) on chromosomes of peritoneal and bone-marrow cells of Swiss mice. In peritoneal cells, all four treatments (HE, EE, HWE and CWE) induced structural chromosome aberrations, but the EE also induced numerical chromosome aberrations. In bone-marrow cells both HE and CWE induced structural chromosome aberrations; additionally, the number of abnormal metaphases was higher in peritoneum than in bone marrow. We suggest that bracken fern induces cytogenetic damage through DNA strand breaks and affects chromosome segregation.
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