CHROMOSOME ABERRATIONS INDUCED IN CULTURED HUMAN CELLS BY CAFFEINE

抄録

Caffeine induced a high frequency of chromatid aberrations in the cultured human leucocytes and the human embryonic cells in culture. The chromatid aberrations were predominantly gaps and breaks, and no exchange aberrations were observed. Experiments made by varying the interim between treatment and fixation, accompanied by the ³H-TdR labelling technique, showed that induction of damage was confined to the DNA-synthesis phase, in which the later part of the S phase was the most sensitive. Caffeine had no effect on the G₁ and G₂ phases. The rarity of exchange aberrations and the restriction of sensitivity to the DNA-synthesis phase may relate to the ambiguous results on the effectiveness of caffeine in the induction of dominant lethal mutations in laboratory animals.