Cytogenotoxicity of azo dye Reactive Red 120 (RR120) on fish Catla catla

The textile industries play a major role in the economy of India. In addition to this, they exert acute and/or chronic effects on environment by discharge of effluent in the environment. This study was designed to assess the cyto genotoxicity of Reactive Red 120 (RR120) on freshwater fish Catla catla, using DNA damage in gill cells and blood cells as sensitive biomarkers. For this, fingerlings were exposed to three sublethal concentrations of RR120 (0.35, 0.7, 3.5 mg L–1). Samples (gills and peripheral blood) were collected and analyzed at fixed intervals (10, 20 and 30 days) and were compared with those of the control. Some nuclear changes were observed, such as micronuclei (MN), nuclear buds (NB), fragmented-apoptotic (FA) and bi-nucleated (BN) cells in both peripheral blood cells and gill cells. All the abnormalities showed doseand time-dependent increase and were higher in the gill cells. The results clearly revealed the most significant change for MN, followed by FA, BN and NB in both samples. Hence, RR120 has a potential to damage DNA in cells and exerts genotoxic impact on fish. These findings also suggest the possible toxicity of RR120 to humans by direct or indirect exposure.