Assessment of Chromosomal Damage in Umbilical Blood Lymphocytes of Newborns from Kragujevac in Central Serbia Born 18 Years after Environmental Contamination

Assessment of Chromosomal Damage in Umbilical Blood Lymphocytes of Newborns from Kragujevac in Central Serbia Born 18 Years after Environmental Contamination

Olivera Milošević-Djordjević,^1,2 Jovana Tubić Vukajlović,¹ Aleksandra Marković,¹ Darko Grujičić,¹ Petar Arsenijević^3,4 and Slobodan Arsenijević^3,4

¹Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia
²Department of Genetics, Kragujevac, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia
³Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia
⁴Clinic of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Clinical Centre of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia

The measurement of micronuclei (MN) in umbilical blood lymphocytes of newborns are increasingly used in cytogenetic epidemiology as one of the preferred methods for assessing chromosomal damage resulted rom maternal exposure to mutagen. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of strong environmental contamination (EC) (which occured in the City of Kragujevac, Central Serbia in 1999) on the MN frequency in group of 22 newborns born in Kragujevac 18 years after EC, using cytokinesis-block micronucleus (CBMN) assay. The mean MN frequency in umbilical lymphocytes of these newborns was 5.14 ± 2.17/1,000 binucleated (BN) cells, which is significantly lower than mean MN frequency of newborns born 12 months after contamination (9.36 ± 5.60/1,000 BN cells). Sex of newborns, age of mothers, cigarette moking, and number of pregnancies did not affect the MN frequency of newborns. Our results showed that in utero exposure to environmental pollution affected genome instability of the fetuses, but that by improving the quality of environmental conditions there was a decrease in mean MN frequency of newborns born 18 years after contamination. In general, genome of umbilical lymphocytes shows a realistic picture of all changes in body and the environment.

Keywords —— environmental contamination; micronucleus assay; newborns; umbilical blood lymphocytes

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med 2021, 255, 213-219.

Correspondence: Olivera Milošević-Djordjević, University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Science, Radoja Domanovića 12, Kragujevac 34000, Serbia.

e-mail: olivera.djordjevic@pmf.kg.ac.rs