A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF PARAQUAT AND DIQUAT ON CULTURED HUMAN CELLS

Abstract

The effects of paraquat on human embryonic somatic cells were compared with those of diquat, which is a bipyridylium compound similar to paraquat. Cell lesions, mainly fatty degeneration, were observed after staining with Sudan Black B. Both herbicides caused fatty degeneration in the cells even at a concentration of 1 ppm; paraquat also caused more vacuolar degeneration at 200 to 400 ppm, than did diquat. Paraquat caused slightly higher lactate dehydrogenase activity than did diquat. The cell mortality was examined by staining with nigrosine and calculating the number of dead and damaged cells. The cell mortality for diquat was higher than that for paraquat at all concentrations but not significantly (p < 0.05).