Mutation Research 490 (2001) 107–112 Chromosome aberrations and sister chromatid exchanges in cultured human lymphocytes treated with sodium metabisulfite, a food preservative Eyyüp Rencüzoˇ gullari a,∗ , Hasan Basri ˙ Ila b , Ahmet Kayraldiz b , Mehmet Topakta¸ s a a Biology Department, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of Çukurova, 01330 Adana, Turkey b Biology Department, Institute of Natural and Applied Science, University of Çukurova, 01330 Adana, Turkey Received 4 July 2000; received in revised form 30 August 2000; accepted 11 October 2000 Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of sodium metabisulfite (SMB) which is used as an antimicrobial substance in food, to induce chromosome aberrations (CA) and sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) in human lymphocytes. SMB-induced CAs and SCEs at all concentrations (75, 150 and 300 g/ml) and treatment periods (24 and 48 h) dose-dependently. However, SMB decreased the replication index (RI) and the mitotic index (MI) at the concentrations of 150 and 300 g/ml for 24 and 48h treatment periods. This decrease was dose-dependent as well. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Sodium metabisulfite; Human lymphocytes; Chromosome aberration; Sister chromatid exchange; Food preservative 1. Introduction Population of the world is increasing every year. Therefore, it is essential to find new food sources and preserve them for a long period without smell up.Therefore, many of the methods were improved in storing the food for a long period, and also many of chemical substances are used for the preservation of food as antimicrobial agents. It was reported that certain food additives substances, especially antimi- crobial agents are genotoxic in different test systems [1–11]. However, there are a lot of food preservatives whose their genotoxic effects are unknown. SMB is used as a food preservative in food products like as biscuit, chocolate, jam, sausage, salami and also in many alcoholic liquor like as beer, wine, cham- ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +90-322-3386084; fax: +90-322-3386070. E-mail address: reyyup@mail.cu.edu.tr (E. Rencüzoˇ gullari). pagne etc. The Ministry of Agricultural (of Turkey) suggested that SMB may be used at a maximum dose of 300 mg/l (300 g/ml) as an antimicrobial substance [12]. On the other hand, bisulfite induced the CA, SCE and formation of micronuclei in human lympho- cytes [13], enhanced guanine phosphoribosyl trans- ferase (GPT) mutations in CHO AS52 cells [14] and also bisulfite is a weak mutagen at pH 5–6 in S. ty- phimurium TA1535 and TA97 strains, but is not muta- genic in TA1537 and TA1538 strains [15]. At present, there is no published data on the induction of CA and SCE by SMB. For this reason the aim of our study is to investigate the effects of SMB on CA and SCE induction in human lymphocytes. 2. Materials and methods In this study, human peripheral blood cells were used as the test system. The test substance SMB was 1383-5718/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S1383-5718(00)00142-X