ABSTRACT
The sugar cane industry in Australia is a prolific consumer of a variety of second generation pesticides including the organochlorines. Since it is known that Ca is a most important second messenger in the commitment to cell proliferation of the cells of the immune system, a role for organochlorines in the modulation of calcium signals has been investigated. Similar effects were also shown by micromolar concentrations of a variety of other organochlorines including dieldrin and chlordane. The addition of organochlorines to thymus cells also perturbed chemiluminescent responses of the cells to a variety of stimuli and most particularly when the calcium ionophore A23187 was also added. The production of such unscheduled oxidizing free radicals is known to be extremely damaging to surrounding cells and tissues and if generated by organochlorines, would be occurring in tissues already stressed by calcium imbalance.
