Journal of Korean Medical Science

Korean Acad Medical Sciences (대한의학회)
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Cellular Toxicity of Surfactants Used as Herbicide Additives

  • Song, Ho-Yeon (Department of Immunology, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University) ;
  • Kim, Young-Hee (Department of Immunology, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University) ;
  • Seok, Su-Jin (Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University) ;
  • Gil, Hyo-Wook (Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University) ;
  • Yang, Jong-Oh (Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University) ;
  • Lee, Eun-Young (Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University) ;
  • Hong, Sae-Yong (Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University)
  • Published : 2012.01.02
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Abstract

The cellular toxicities of surfactants, a solvent, and an antifreeze that are included in herbicide formulations were assessed by measuring their effects on membrane integrity, metabolic activity, mitochondrial activity, and total protein synthesis rate in a cell culture. Polyethylene glycol, propylene glycol, and monoethylene glycol exhibited no cellular toxicity even at a high concentration of 100 mM. Sodium lauryl ether sulfate and polyoxyethylene lauryl ether significantly damaged the membrane, disturbed cellular metabolic activity, and decreased mitochondrial activity and the protein synthesis rate; however, their toxicity was far below those of the severely toxic chemicals at comparable concentrations. The severely toxic category included polyoxypropylene glycol block copolymer, polyoxyethylene tallow amine, and polyoxyethylene lauryl amine ether. These surfactants were cytotoxic between $3.125{\mu}M$ and $100{\mu}M$ in a dose-dependent manner. However, the toxicity graph of concentration vs toxicity had a point of inflection at $25\;{\mu}M$. The slope of the toxicity graph was gentle when the concentration was below $25{\mu}M$ and steep when the concentration was greater than $25{\mu}M$. In conclusion, our results suggest that the toxicity of surfactants be taken care of pertinent treatment of acute herbicide intoxication.

Keywords

References

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