Genotoxicity of nitrosated ranitidine.

The genotoxicity of ranitidine, widely used in the therapy of peptic ulcers, and of nitrosated ranitidine was examined in test systems with the bacteria Salmonella typhimurium for gene mutations, and with the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae D7 for reverse mutations and gene conversion. Under the experimental conditions applied, ranitidine was negative in both systems, while the product obtained by nitrosation in vitro was mutagenic for Salmonella strains TA100 and TA98 with and without metabolic activation. The largest increase of his+ revertants, 3 times greater than the control, was obtained in strain TA100 in the absence of S9 fraction. Nitrosated ranitidine was also recombinogenic for the yeast S. cerevisiae.