Genotoxic potential of two herbicides and their active ingredients assessed with comet assay on a fish cell line, epithelioma papillosum cyprini (EPC).

The aim of this study was to optimize the epithelioma papillosum cyprini (EPC) cell line handling procedure for the comet assay to investigate the genotoxic potential of widely used pesticides. The effects of various media and handling of the EPC cell line were examined. Results indicated that avoiding trypsin to detach cells led to lower level of DNA damage in the negative control. Further, two commonly used herbicides (Dezormon and Optica trio) and their four active ingredients (4-chloro-o-tolyloxyacetic acid, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, 2-(4-chloro-2-methylphenoxy)propionic acid, 2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)propionic acid) individually and in a ternary mixture were examined with the comet assay. Data showed that among the active ingredients only 2,4-D and MCPA induced DNA damage, while both herbicides were genotoxic at high concentrations.