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Samples of peripheral blood were collected once from non-smoking women who were healthy (controls) and twice (immediately before and immediately after 7 days of treatment with metronidazole at 500 mg/day) from non-smoking women infected with Trichomonas vaginalis. Lymphocyte cultures were prepared and used, in toxicogenetic studies, to determine the frequency of sister-chromatid exchange (SCE), the mitotic index (MI), and the replication index (RI) for each sample. MTZ treatment of the infected women led to an increase in the frequency of SCE (P <0.001), a decrease in the MI (P <0.003), and a modification in the kinetics of cell proliferation, with a decrease in the RI (P <0.0006). The differences seen between the results for the controls and those for the infected women, before and after MTZ treatment, may be attributed to the presence of the parasite, to the treatment itself, and/or to variation in the host's response to infection with T. vaginalis.

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5-Nitroimidazoles are a well-established group of antiprotozoal and antibacterial agents. Thanks to their antimicrobial activity these chemotherapeutic agents inhibit the growth of both anaerobic bacteria and certain anaerobic protozoa such as Trichomonas vaginalis, Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia lamblia. The aim of the present study is to achieve a precise characterization of the genotoxic activity of these compounds and to establish the value of cytogenetic assays in order to determine the effect of these drugs, at therapeutic doses, to settle an improved risk assessment. Two nitroimidazole were studied, metronidazole and ornidazole, at four different concentrations (0.1, 1, 10 and 50 microg/ml of peripheral blood lymphocyte culture). Endpoints analyzed included: mitotic index (MI), replication index (RI), sister chromatid exchange (SCE) and chromosomal aberrations (CA). An analysis of variance test (ANOVA) was performed to evaluate the results. A significant decrease (P<0.0001) in MI as well as an increase in SCE (P<0.0001) and CA (0.0001) frequencies for both drugs was observed. No modifications in RI were found. The results suggest a genotoxic and cytotoxic effect of MTZ and ONZ in human peripheral blood cultures in vitro.

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Parasitic illnesses is increasing all over the world, especially in developing countries, and metronidazole (MTZ) is the therapeutic agent usually administered to children as well as adults at the reproductive age. In this work, we propose an evaluation of MTZ in order to analyze the potential reproductive damage in females by using Rattus norvegicus (Sprague-Dawley) as an animal model. Adult female rats were mated after MTZ treatments, and they were sacrificed at 21 days of gestation. Different types of damage were evaluated by using mortality, phenotypic abnormalities and reproductive capacity as parameters, and were studied and scored in 70 adult specimens (450 g/bw). They were divided into five groups: a) untreated females as a control group; females treated with b) DMSO as a solvent control group or c) 500 mg/kg/bw of MTZ per day for 7 days as therapeutic dose (TD); d) a half therapeutic dose (HD); and e) a double therapeutic dose (DD). Pre-implantation death in MTZ-treated groups was not significantly different from controls. However, drug treatments significantly increased the frequency of post-implantation deaths and the dominant lethals were ranged between 12.0 % and 17.8 %.

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The effect of acute acetaldehyde treatments on X chromosome segregation was tested in germinal cells of Drosophila melanogaster females. The experiments were carried out using a test system where the nondisjunctional females (XXY) and only 1/4 of the expected regular progeny are viable. 24 h old virgin females were exposed for 60 min to 3, 4 and 5% acetaldehyde solutions by means of soaked tissue paper placed at the bottom of regular culture vials. After mating the females were brooded daily. Two additional experiments were performed with 0-2 h old and 4-5 day old virgin females using a 4% acetaldehyde solution. The results obtained show that acetaldehyde did not affect X chromosomal segregation in oocytes. This lack of effect could result from the highly efficient ADH-ALDH dependent detoxifying mechanism operating in Drosophila melanogaster.

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The effect of ethanol pretreatment on X-ray-induced mitotic recombination in D. melanogaster females was investigated by means of the white/white+ (w/w+) spot test. White females inseminated by yellow males were allowed to oviposit for 8 hr on medium containing 5%, 7.5% and 10% (v/v) ethanol and submitted to 10 Gy of X-rays 52 hr after the beginning of the egg laying period (chronic treatments). For acute treatments 56 +/- 4-hr-old larvae grown in regular medium were held in petri dishes containing filter paper soaked with 50% (v/v) ethanol for 30 min before being irradiated with 10 Gy. The emerging heterozygous w/w+ females were inspected for the presence of white spots (LS) in their eyes. Acute ethanol pretreatments lead to a significant reduction in the frequency of LS. This is suggested to be due to the scavenging by ethanol of free radicals originating during irradiation. If so, the contribution of the indirect action of radiation to mitotic recombination induced by X-rays must be significant. Chronic ethanol pretreatments also resulted in a decrease of LS, though impairment of larval development by ethanol may have partly contributed to the effect observed. At the concentrations tested, ethanol by itself did not modify the frequency of LS observed in the control.

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The effect of ethanol on chromosomal segregation was investigated in Drosophila melanogaster females homozygous for a structurally normal X chromosome marked with the recessive mutation yellow (y/y). For chronic treatments the females were kept from eclosion in food supplemented with 10% or 15% (v/v) ethanol, mated 24 or 48 h later to wild-type males and brooded in freshly prepared ethanol food. For the acute treatments 24- or 48-h-old females were exposed for 60 min to a 75% (v/v) ethanol solution by means of soaked tissue paper placed at the bottom of regular culture vials and brooded daily after mating. The results obtained show that: (1) both treatments significantly increased the frequency of X-chromosome nondisjunction; (2) after acute treatment this effect declined in later broods; (3) the yield of malformed flies in the progeny of acutely treated females was significantly higher than control values and also declined in later broods; (4) ovary analysis showed that chronic ethanol treatments caused a cessation of egg production. The induction pattern of nondisjunction and malformed flies is interpreted as giving support to the assumption that these effects may result from a direct action of ethanol. Ethanol toxicity was assessed by exposing females of different ages to a 50% or a 75% (v/v) solution for 60 min and counting the surviving flies 24 h later. The surviving fraction decreased steeply from 1-day-old (100%) to 5-day-old females (1.8%). It is suggested that toxicity may have been due to the action of a metabolite of ethanol, probably acetaldehyde.

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