Vitamin E pretreatment prevents the immunotoxicity of dithiocarbamate pesticide mancozeb in vitro: A comparative age-related assessment in mice and chick.

Pesticides used for crop protection cause life-threatening diseases affecting the immune system of non-target organisms including birds and mammals. Functionality of immune system is age-dependent; early- as well as old-life stages are more susceptible to toxic exposures because of less competent immune system. Vitamins are so far known to reduce toxic effect of several pesticides and/or xenobiotics. The present in vitro study elucidated immunotoxicity of fungicide mancozeb through comparable stages of immune system maturation in mice (1, 3, and 12months) and chicks (4, 8, and 11weeks). In vitro splenocytes viability on exposure to mancozeb was quantitatively assessed by MTT assay and qualitatively by acridine orange and ethidium bromide (AO/EB) double fluorescence staining. Mancozeb exposure dose dependently (250, 500, 1000, 2500, 5000 and 10,000ng/ml) decreased the splenocytes viability. The in vitro preventive effect of Vitamin E has also been explored on toxicity induced by mancozeb. The increased susceptibility observed both in early and aged groups was due to less/decline competence of the immune system.