You are here:
PLASMID DNA DAMAGE CAUSED BY STIBINE AND TRIMETHYLSTIBINE
Citation:
Andrewes, P., K T. Kitchin, AND K. A. Wallace. PLASMID DNA DAMAGE CAUSED BY STIBINE AND TRIMETHYLSTIBINE. TOXICOLOGY AND APPLIED PHARMACOLOGY 194(1):41-48, (2004).
Description:
The in vitro genotoxicity of stibine and trimethylstibine
Abstract
Antimony is classified as `possibly carcinogenic to humans' and there is also sufficient evidence for antimony carcinogenicity in experimental animals. Stibine is a volatile inorganic antimony compound to which humans can be exposed in occupational settings (e.g. lead-acid battery charging). Because it is highly toxic, stibine is considered a significant health risk; however, its genotoxicity has received little attention. For the work reported here, stibine was generated by sodium borohydride reduction of potassium antimony tartrate. Trimethylstibine is a volatile organometallic antimony compound, found commonly in landfill and sewage fermentation gases at concentrations ranging between 0.1 and 100ug/m3. Trimethylstibine is generally considered to pose little environmental or health risk. In the work reported here, trimethylstibine was generated by reduction of trimethylantimony dichloride (200uM) using either sodium borohydride (5 mM) or dithioerythritol (5 mM). Here we report the evaluation of the in vitro genotoxicities of five antimony compounds-potassium antimony tartrate, stibine, potassium hexahydroxyantimonate, trimethylantimony dichloride and trimethylstibineusing a plasmid DNA nicking assay. Of these five antimony compounds only stibine and trimethylstibine were genotoxic (significant nicking to pBR 322 plasmid DNA). We found stibine and trimethylstibine to be about equipotent with trimethylarsine using this plasmid DNA nicking assay.