[Mutagenic effect of the food-coloring agents tartrazine and indigo carmine]. / Izuchenie mutagennogo deistviia pishchevykh krasitelei tartrazina i indigokarmina.

The authors studied the mutagenic action of the food dyes, tartrazine (both Soviet and imported) and indigocarmine in a microbial model and in warm-blooded animals (linear mice). Determined the toxicity and mutagenic action of the dyes on E. coli, strain K-12, carried out chromosomal analysis of the bone marrow, examined the dominant lethals in CBA X C57BL/6 mice. The recommended daily dose amounts to 400 mg/kg for tartrazine and to 50 mg/kg for indigocarmine with regard to the safety factor equal to 100. The data derived as a result of studying the mutagenic activity of tartrazine manufactured in the USSR and CSSR and indigocarmine paste in 3 experimental models allow the conclusion to be made that the doses of these dyes applied in food industry are fairly safe.

Experiments with micro-organisms and human cell cultures in the Zond 5 and Zond 7 flights.

Lysogenic strains of Escherichia coli were exposed to space conditions aboard the flight of Zond 5 and Zond 7. Space flight factors appeared to affect the state of episome systems of bacteria, as judged by data obtained with F-Lac+ donor cells which also carried genetic markers for threonine and leucine. Observations on phage induction are discussed and compared with results obtained aboard Biosatellite 2. A number of monolayer cultures of human cells (HeLa cells, fibroblasts, and A-1 cells) were repeatedly exposed to the space environment. In one instance, HeLa 19 cells increased in size after exposure to space conditions, a change which appeared to be genetically stable. HeLa 19 cells which were carried on six separate space flights showed a higher viability than corresponding cultures which were exposed only once aboard Zond 5.