title: Impact of common cytostatic drugs on pollen fertility in higher plants.
abstract: Cytostatic drugs are among the most toxic chemicals which are produced. Many of them cause damage of the genetic material which may affect the fertility of higher organisms. To study the impact of the widely used anticancer drugs [cisplatin (CisPt), etoposide (Et), and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)] on the reproduction of higher plants, pollen abortion experiments were conducted with species which belong to major plant families, namely with Tradescantia paludosa (Commelinaceae), Arabidopsis thaliana (Brassicaceae), Chelidonium majus (Papaveraceae), and Alisma plantago-aquatica (Alismataceae). All compounds increased the frequencies of abortive grains. The lowest effective doses were in general in a narrow range (i.e., 1 and 10 mg/kg of dry soil). The effects of the individual drugs were similar in T. paludosa, A. plantago-aquatica, and Ch. majus, while A. thaliana was consistently less sensitive. The highest abortion rate was obtained in most experiments with CisPt, followed by 5-FU and Et. Comparisons of the doses which caused effects in the present experiments in the different species with the predicted environment concentrations and with the levels of the cytostatics which were detected in hospital wastewaters show that the realistic environmental concentrations of the drugs are 4-6 orders of magnitude lower. Therefore, it is unlikely that these drugs affect the fertility of higher plants in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cancer Research, Department of Internal Medicine I, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Miroslav
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mišík
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Health, Medical University of Vienna, Center for Public Health, Kinderspitalgasse 15, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kundi
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cancer Research, Department of Internal Medicine I, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Clemens
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pichler
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Metka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Filipic
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cancer Research, Department of Internal Medicine I, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rainer
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mišíková
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cancer Research, Department of Internal Medicine I, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Armen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nersesyan
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cancer Research, Department of Internal Medicine I, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, 1090, Vienna, Austria. siegfried.knasmueller@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Siegfried
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Knasmueller
mesh_terms: D002945:Cisplatin / Q000633:toxicity*; D054697:Cytostatic Agents / Q000633:toxicity*; D005047:Etoposide / Q000633:toxicity*; D005298:Fertility / Q000187:drug effects; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000633:toxicity*; D019684:Magnoliopsida / Q000187:drug effects*; D011058:Pollen / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D054697:Cytostatic Agents; D005047:Etoposide; D002945:Cisplatin; D005472:Fluorouracil
keywords: Alisma; Arabidopsis; Chelidonium; Cytostatics; Pollen abortion; Tradescantia; Wild plants