COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF THE GENOTOXIC ACTIVITY OF POTASSIUM THIOCYANATE

Kuzina Tatyana Vyacheslavovna  -  candidate of biological sciences, associate professor of the department of fundamental biology, Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of higher education «Astrakhan State University named after V.N. Tatishchev», Russia, 414056, Astrakhan, Tatishchev st., 20a, tatuls@mail.ru

Potassium thiocyanate (potassium rhodanide) is a toxic chemical that is widely used. Often found in chemical industry wastewater. Particular attention should be paid to assessing the genotoxic effects of individual substances during environmental monitoring and identifying the real environmental safety of wastewater. The purpose of the work is to determine the potential carcinogenic effect of potassium thiocyanate on fish using cytogenetic research methods (micronuclear test and DNA comet method). The high content of potassium thiocyanate in water had no visible pathomorphological effect on fish, but caused a gentotoxic effect in the form of accumulation of damage in the structure of the DNA molecule. After 96-hour exposure in water of fish with a high content of thiocyanate (120 mg/l), destructive changes in the genome (DNA comets, micronuclei, pathological forms of erythrocyte nuclei) were noted many times more in comparison with the control. A correlation was discovered between the level of formation of DNA comets and micronuclei in fish blood erythrocytes and the content of thiocyanate in water. The data obtained indicate the genotoxic activity of potassium thiocyanate. The need for a system for assessing the genotoxicity of wastewater containing thiocyanates is discussed.

Key words: micronucleus test, DNA comet, potassium thiocyanate, erythrocytes