Synergistic interaction of radiation and octylphenol evaluated by tradescantia-micronucleus assay

Many kinds of synthetic chemicals have been being used for various purposes. Some of them are called 'endocrine disruptors' because they can disturb the endocrine system of organisms. Presently no technique is established for the quantitative assessment of biological risk of the environmental hormones. The pollen mother cells (PMC) of tradescantia are very sensitive to chemical toxicants or ionizing radiation, and thus can be used as a biological end- point for assessing their effects. Micronucleus frequencies in PMC showed a good dose- and concentration-response relationship for radiation and bisphenol A. The MCN frequencies in the pollen mother cells treated with octylphenol were 4.20, 7.27, 4.93 MCN/100 tetrads for 1, 5 and 10 μM, respectively. On the other hand, the frequencies were 10.13, 19.27, 24.47 MCN/100 tetrads for the octylphenol treatments (1, 5, and 10 μM) combined with 30 cGy irradiation. The MCN frequency of 30 cGy control was 8.00 MCN/100 tetrads for the octylphenol treatments (1, 5, and 10μM) combined with 30 cGy irradiation. The MCN frequency of 30 cGy control was 8.00 MCN/100 tetrads. It is known from the result that the Trad-MCN assay can be an excellent tool for the detection of biologically harmful effects of environmental toxicants or synthetic chemicals