哺乳動物細胞を用いる変異原性試験 : 発癌性・遺伝毒性物質の検索

抄録

Short-term tests in vitro as well as in vivo using mammalian cells are reliable and useful screening tools for the chemicals which may have any carcinogenic potential and/or genetic hazard. Chromosomal aberration test in vitro combined with or without a metabolic activation appeared to be a suitable method for mass screening level and it could cover a few carcinogens which gave a false negative in microbial mutation assays like Ames test. The clastogenic activity was generally well correlated with the mutagenic potential in the Ames test, if the positive data were compared and quantitatively evaluated. The results obtained from in vitro systems, however, did not always reflect those obtained from in vivo system. Therefore whole animal tests such as bone marrow cytogenetics, micronucleus test, spot test and others were further recommended as the secondary system to confirm the data obtained from in vitro primary tests. Technological problems of the method as well as qualitative or quantitative evaluation on the screening data were discussed on the basis of our experiments which had been carried out on more than 500 different chemicals including well-known carcinogens, such as food additives, medicinal drugs, pesticides, house-hold materials and other industrial chemicals.