Cytotoxic effect of atrazine on murine B-lymphocytes in vitro

When a stable cell line from mouse connective tissue was used to test the cytotoxicity of atrazine no significant influence on cell proliferation was observed at concentrations of 0.003-200 microM. However, freshly isolated mouse spleen cells reacted very sensitively to the presence of atrazine. During the course of the experiment the spleen cells were pretreated with atrazine (0.05-5 microM) before the proliferation of B-lymphocytes was stimulated with LPS. A reduced number of developing B-blasts was observed in the atrazine pretreated cultures. The B-blasts were fused with myeloma cells and cultivated in HAT (hypoxantine, aminopterin,thymidine)-medium for hybridoma selection. The number of surviving clones was significantly lower on atrazine pretreatment.