Study on peripheral blood micronuclei by flow cytometry in cadmium poisoned mice

  Objective   To analyze micronuclei of mice peripheral blood reticulocytes induced by cadmium chloride(CdCl₂) with flow cytometry(FCM)and to explore the genotoxicity of CdCl₂ and further to evaluate the application value of FCM in micronuclei assay.

  Methods   Mice were randomly divided into 10 groups(n=5)and exposed to 10-60mg/kg cyclophosphamide(CP)and 50-400μg/kg CdCl₂ respectively.The micronucleated reticulocytes(MN-RET)in per ipheral blood of mice were detected by a flow cytometry-based method, in which anti-CD71-FITC and propidiumiodide(PI)were used to stain cells and malaria-infected erythrocytes were used as a biological standard of micronuclei to optimize cytometry.

  Results   The frequency of MN-RET in peripheral blood(auto matically detected with FCM)and bone marrow(assayed with microscopy)was significantly increased with the highly correlation between them(r=0.955).No remarkable alteration in micronuclei of peripheral reticulocytes was observed in mice exposed to different concentration of CdCl₂.

  Conclusion   The frequency of MN-RET in peripheral blood with FCM could be used to assess the micronucleus formation effect of genotoxicity.No significant micronucleus formation was found in cadmium-poisoned mice.