Dietary protection by iron against clastogenic effects of short-term exposure to arsenic in mice in vivo

Iron, as freshly prepared aqueous solution of ferrous sulfate, was administered by gavage to laboratory bred Swiss albino mice. The concentration used was 152 mg/kg body weight (1/10 of the LD 50). While screening for protection against arsenic, in one set of experiment exposure to iron was followed after 2 hr by gavaging with 2.5 mg/kg body weight (1/10 of the LD 50) of arsenic as sodium (III) meta arsenite in distilled water. In another set, equal amounts (1:1) of ferrous sulfate and sodium arsenite were administered simultaneously. Control sets were given sodium m-arsenite alone and distilled water (vehicle). After exposure for 24 hr in all experiments, mice were sacrificed and chromosome preparations were made from bone marrow according to a colchicine–hypotonic–fixation–air–drying-Giemsa schedule. Cytogenetic endpoints screened were chromosome aberrations and divisional frequencies. Sodium arsenite alone was highly clastogenic. Ferrous sulfate, whether given together with or before exposure to sodium arsenite, reduced the clastogenic effects of the latter to a significant extent.