Chromosomal Aberration Assay of Induced Toxicity of Cadmium & Lead and their Interaction in Wistar Rat

The present study has been carried out to study genotoxic effect induced by cadmium, lead and their mixture in wistar rats. Sixty colony bred albino wistar strain rats of both sexes were divided uniformly into five different groups. Group I received only deionised water and served as control while, group II, III and IV were orally gavaged with cadmium chloride @100PPM; lead acetate @500PPM; and mixture of cadmium chloride @100PPM & lead acetate @500PPM respectively, for 28 days. Group V was kept as a positive control for genotoxicity study which was given cyclophosphamide (20 mg/kg body weight i.p. 24 hours prior to terminal sacrifice). All the three treatment groups showed increase in chromosomal aberrations as compared to negative control. Cadmium and lead when administered alone were equally genotoxic to that of mixture of both metals at the given dose level while their genotoxic potential was less than the known positive compound cyclophosphamide.