title: Chaetophractus villosus as a sentinel organism: Baseline values of mitotic index, chromosome aberrations and sister chromatid exchanges.
abstract: Sentinel species are useful tools for studying the deleterious effects of xenobiotics on wildlife. The large hairy armadillo (Chaetophractus villosus) is the most abundant and widely distributed mammal in Argentina. It is a long-lived, omnivorous, burrowing species, with fairly restricted home ranges. To evaluate the level of spontaneous genetic damage in this mammal, we determined the baseline values of several genotoxicity biomarkers. The study included 20 C. villosus adults of both sexes from eight pristine localities within its geographic distribution range. Genotoxicity analysis was performed on 72-h lymphocyte cultures, using mitomycin C as positive control. We obtained the baseline values of mitotic index (MI=10.52±0.30 metaphases/total cells, n=20), chromosome aberrations (CA=0.13±0.22, n=20), sister chromatid exchanges (SCE)=6.55±0.26, n=6) and replication index (RI=1.66, n=6). MI and CA did not show significant differences (P>0.05) among localities or between sexes. No significant differences in MI, CA, SCE, and RI (P>0.05) were found between values from the pristine localities and historical data. There were significant differences in CA, SCE, and RI (P<0.05) between lymphocyte cultures from pristine localities and those exposed to mitomycin C. We propose the large hairy armadillo as a sentinel organism for environmental biomonitoring of genotoxic chemicals due to its abundance, easy manipulation, well-known biology, the fact that it is usually exposed to different mixtures and concentrations of environmental contaminants, and the baseline values of genetic damage characterized by MI, CA, SCE and RI as biomarkers.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología Cromosómica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Paraguay 2155, C1121ABG, Piso 10 Lab. 6, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Luis Francisco
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología Cromosómica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Paraguay 2155, C1121ABG, Piso 10 Lab. 6, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Juan Pablo
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Luaces
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología Cromosómica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Paraguay 2155, C1121ABG, Piso 10 Lab. 6, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Browne
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología Cromosómica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Paraguay 2155, C1121ABG, Piso 10 Lab. 6, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Mónica Gabriela
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Chirino
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología Cromosómica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Paraguay 2155, C1121ABG, Piso 10 Lab. 6, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: mmerani@fmed.uba.ar.
authors.forename: María Susana
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Merani
authors.affiliation: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Grupo de Investigación en Biología Evolutiva (GIBE), Depto EGE, IEGEBA, Labs. 43 y 46- Piso 4- FCEyN- Pabellón II- Cdad, Universitaria. Intendente Güiraldes 2160 (C1428EGA), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Marta Dolores
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Mudry
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations / Q000139:chemically induced*; D004249:DNA Damage / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D016685:Mitomycin / Q000633:toxicity; D008940:Mitotic Index; D012854:Sister Chromatid Exchange / Q000187:drug effects*; D004490:Xenarthra / Q000378:metabolism; D015262:Xenobiotics / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D015262:Xenobiotics; D016685:Mitomycin
keywords: Biomarkers; Chaetophractus villosus; Chromosome aberrations; Genotoxicity; Sentinel organism; Sister chromatid exchange