Metaphase and anaphase analysis of V79 cells exposed to erionite, UICC chrysotile and UICC crocidolite

The cytogenetic effects of erionite treatment of V79 cells werecompared with those of UICC crocidolite and UICC chrysotiletreatment. A significant reduction in diploid cells with anaccompanying increase in aneuploid and polyploid cells was observedwith all three treatments. In the erionite-treated cultures,an increase in aneuploid was observedy at all dose levels rangingfrom 10 to 100 µg/ml, whereas in the crocidolite- andchrysotile-treated cultures, significant increases in aneuploidywere observed at all dose levels except the low dose, 10 µg/ml.Chromatid aberrations were observed in cultures treated withcrocidolite and chrysotile and were especially pronounced atdose 100 µg/ml of chrysotile. The clastogenic effect oferionite was weaker but statistically significant at dose 100µg/ml. An extrapolation of these cytogenetic changes overdose in number of fibers suggests that erionite was more reactivethan the other two minerals in producing aneuploidy. The numberof fibers required to produce a similar degree of cytogeneticeffects was several orders of magnitude higher for chrysotileand crocidolite than erionite. These results correlate withthe higher tumorigenic potency of erionite. In general, fewercells treated with erionite entered anaphase than those treatedwith the other two minerals. As a result, abnormal anaphasesrepresenting chromosomal mis-segregation were observed onlyin the chrysotile- and crocidolite-treated cultures. To ourknowledge, this is the first report on cytogenetic effects oferionite.