RESUMEN
The objective of this study was to use the same concentrations of aluminum (Al) and manganese (Mn) detected previously in groundwater above those permitted by Brazilian law and assess their cytotoxic and genotoxic effects in hamster ovary cell lines and their mutagenic effects through the Salmonella microsome assay. Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) and CHO-XRS5 cells were treated with different concentrations of Al and Mn (0.2 to 2.0 mg/L and 0.1 to 3.0 mg/L, respectively). The Ames test was used to analyze the concentrations of Al and Mn ranging from 0.025 to 1.0 mg/L and 0.0125 to 1.5 mg/L, respectively. Both metals showed cytotoxic effects on both cell lines and two bacterial strains (TA98 and TA100). The genotoxic effects of the highest concentrations of Al and Mn in cell lines showed nuclear buds, micronuclei, and DNA damage; however, none of the concentrations showed a positive mutagenic response in the Ames test. This is one of the few studies to demonstrate the cytotoxic effects of Al and Mn through the Ames test. In addition, the metals caused genomic instability in cell lines. Therefore, this study may help hasten the review of established regulatory standards for human consumption of groundwater.
RESUMEN
The Ames test has become one of the most commonly used tests to assess the mutagenic potential of medicinal plants since they have several biological activities and thus have been used in traditional medicine and in the pharmaceutical industry as a source of raw materials. Accordingly, this review aims to report previous use of the Ames test to evaluate the mutagenic potential of medicinal plants. A database was constructed by curating literature identified by a search on the electronic databases Medline (via Pubmed), Science Direct, Scopus, and Web of Science from 1975 to April 2020, using the following terms: "genotoxicity tests" OR "mutagenicity tests" OR "Ames test" AND "medicinal plants." From the research, 239 articles were selected, including studies of 478 species distributed across 111 botanical families, with Fabaceae, Asteraceae and Lamiaceae being the most frequent. It was identified that 388 species were non-mutagenic. Of these, 21% (83/388) showed antimutagenic potential, most notable in the Lamiaceae family. The results also indicate that 18% (90/478) of the species were mutagenic, of which 54% were mutagenic in the presence and absence of S9. Strains TA98 and TA100 showed a sensitivity of 93% in detecting plant extracts with mutagenic potential. However, the reliability of many reviewed studies regarding the botanical extracts may be questioned due to technical issues, such as testing being performed only in the presence or absence of S9, use of maximum doses below 5 mg/plate and lack of information on the cytotoxicity of tested doses. These methodological aspects additionally demonstrated that a discussion about the doses used in research on mixtures, such as the ones assessed with botanical extracts and the most sensitive strains employed to detect the mutagenic potential, should be included in a possible update of the guidelines designed by the regulatory agencies.
