In vitro cytotoxic effect of glyphosate mixture containing surfactants.

We investigated whether glyphosate influences the cellular toxicity of the surfactants TN-20 and LN-10 on the mouse fibroblast-like cells, alveolar epithelial cells, and a heart cell line. The cytotoxicity of TN-20 and LN-10 (0.4-100 µM), in the presence or absence of glyphosate was determined by assessing membrane integrity. TN-20 toxicity was significantly lower in the presence of 50 µM glyphosate for the fibroblast-like cell (6.25 µM; 3.9% ± 3.4% vs -4.8% ± 0.7%), for the alveolar cells (0.78 µM; 5.7% ± 0.9% vs 0.1% ± 0.6%), and for the heart cell line (25.0 µM; 7.9% ± 3.0% vs 19.4% ± 0.7%) compared to that of TN-20 alone. The cellular toxicity of LN-10 towards the fibroblast-like cells was found to be increased in the presence of 50 µM glyphosate when LN-10 concentrations of 50 µM (31.3% ± 3.9% vs 19.2% ± 0.9%) and 100 µM (62.1% ± 3.4% vs 39.0% ± 0.7%) were compared to that of LN-10 alone. These results suggest that the mixture toxicity may be a factor in glyphosate-surfactant toxicity in patients with acute glyphosate herbicide intoxication.