Cell-mediated mutagenesis of Chinese hamster V79 cells and Salmonella typhimurium

Abstract

In the cell-mediated approach, intact cells metabolically activate the chemical and the genetic end points are measured in cocultivated or coincubated target cells. Cell-mediated systems have been used to study fundamental problems in carcinogenesis, such as organ and species specificity of carcinogen activation, and in screening for carcinogenic chemicals. In the studies discussed here, cells from various rat, hamster, or bovine tissues are used to metabolically activate the chemical, and mutation and/or SCE induction in V79 cells and mutation of S. typhimurium are measured as genetic end points. The detection of genetic activity of a chemical depends both on the cell (organ, species, type, etc.) used for metabolic activation and on the genetic end point measured. Hydrocarbons and nitrosamines are two classes of environmentally significant chemicals that are sensitively detected with cell-mediated systems. The cell-mediated approach provides a valuable metabolic activation component for short-term in vitro systems, and further studies are needed to utilize and evaluate its full potential.