The effect of acute and chronic cadmium and gamma radiation exposures on micronucleus formation in mouse bone marrow cells

It was shown using micronucleus test that Cd chloride in drinking water (5 mg Cd2+/1, 32 days) does not induce cytogenetic damages in mouse bone marrow cells and does not affect the yield of micronuclei (MN) after chronic gamma-irradiation (1 Gy), whereas Cd chloride injection (1 mg Cd2+/kg body wt) leads to an increase in the number of MN. At the same time, both acute and chronic Cd2+ treatment decrease the number of MN induced by acute irradiation. The protective effect of Cd2+ is supposed to be due to activation of repair processes or metallothionein induction.

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