Single dermal dose of permethrin and DEET show start of apoptosis (programmed cell death)

I've had several inquiries from the WNV lists regarding studies on the
combination of DEET and permethrin -- so here is another one that
reports that a single dermal dose of permethrin and DEET in
combination increased the release of a molecule that induces apoptosis
(programmed cell death.) Neither DEET alone nor permethrin had this
affect. A. Hotz
**************************************

                       Combined exposure to DEET
(N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide) and
                       permethrin-induced release of rat brain
mitochondrial cytochrome c.

                       Abu-Qare AW, Abou-Donia MB.

                       Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology,
Duke University Medical Center,
                       Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.

                       The release of cytochrome c from the
mitochondrial intermembrane space can induce
                       apoptosis. The levels of mitochondrial
cytochrome c in rat brain following a single
                       dermal dose of 400 mg/kg of DEET, and of 1.3
mg/kg of permethrin, alone or in
                       combination were determined. Rats were
sacrificed at a time interval of 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8,
                       16, 24, 48, or 72 h after dosing. Brain
mitochondria were isolated and the levels of
                       cytochrome c were measured using reversed-phase
high-performance liquid
                       chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet (UV)
detection. Average percentage
                       recovery of cytochrome c spiked with control
rat brain mitochondria was 83.2 +/-
                       8.9%. Limits of detection and quantitation were
1 and 5 ng, respectively. The results
                       showed that a single dermal dose of a
combination of DEET and permethrin
                       significantly increased the release of brain
mitochondrial cytochrome c starting 24 h
                       after treatment. DEET and permethrin alone did
not affect the release of cytochrome
                       c. The results indicate that combined exposure
to DEET and permethrin might induce
                       the apoptotic processes in rat brain as seen by
the release of cytochrome c.

                       PMID: 11437058 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Received on Fri Mar 21 12:40:31 2003