Benzene induces a dose-responsive increase in the frequency of micronucleated cells in rat Zymbal glands.

The Zymbal gland, a sebaceous tissue associated with the ear duct of certain rodent species, is a principal target for carcinogenesis by benzene. To investigate the mechanism of induction of tumors in the rat Zymbal gland, we have developed a procedure for primary culture of epithelial cells from Zymbal gland explants so that cytogenetic analysis can be performed on this target tissue following an in vivo exposure to benzene. Cytogenetic analysis performed 45 hr after in vivo oral dosing with benzene revealed chromosome damage that occurred as a result of acute, subchronic, and chronic dosing. This damage, expressed as a dose-related increase in the frequency of micronucleated cells, was observed in Sprague-Dawley female rats over a range of benzene doses from 12.5 to 250 mg/kg/day, and in male Fischer 344 rats at doses ranging from 1 to 200 mg/kg/day. These results are consistent with the known clastogenicity of benzene in mouse bone marrow, which is also a target tissue. This study is the first report of a genotoxic effect of benzene in the rat Zymbal gland and shows that micronucleus formation may be used as a correlate for carcinogenesis induced by benzene in this target tissue.

Identification of formaldehyde as the metabolite responsible for the mutagenicity of methyl tertiary-butyl ether in the activated mouse lymphoma assay.

Methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), which is added to gasoline as an octane enhancer and to reduce automotive emissions, has been evaluated in numerous toxicological tests, including those for genotoxicity. MTBE did not show any mutagenic potential in the Ames bacterial assay or any clastogenicity in cytogenetic tests. However, it has been shown to be mutagenic in an in vitro gene mutation assay using mouse lymphoma cells when tested in the presence, but not in the absence, of a rat liver-derived metabolic activation system (S-9). In the present study, MTBE was tested to determine if formaldehyde, in the presence of the S-9, was responsible for the observed mutagenicity. A modification of the mouse lymphoma assay was employed which permits determination of whether a suspect material is mutagenic because it contains or is metabolized to formaldehyde. In the modified assay, the enzyme formaldehyde dehydrogenase (FDH) and its co-factor, NAD+ are added in large excess during the exposure period so that any formaldehyde produced in the system is rapidly converted to formic acid which is not genotoxic. An MTBE dose-responsive increase in the frequency of mutants and in cytotoxicity occurred without FDH present, and this effect was greatly reduced in the presence of FDH NAD+. The findings clearly demonstrate that formaldehyde derived from MTBE is responsible for mutagenicity of MTBE in the activated mouse lymphoma assay. Furthermore, the results suggest that the lack of mutagenicity/clastogenicity seen with MTBE in other in vitro assays might have resulted from inadequacies in the test systems employed for those assays.

Survival and DNA repair in ultraviolet-irradiated haploid and diploid cultured frog cells.

Survival and repair of DNA following ultraviolet (254-nm) radiation have been investigated in ICR 2A, a cultured cell line from haploid embryos of the grassfrog, Rana pipiens. Survival curves from cells recovering in the dark gave mean lethal dose value (Do) in the range 1.5--1.7 Jm-2 for both haploid and diploid cell stocks. The only significant difference observed between haploids and diploids was in the extent of the shoulder at low fluence (Dq), the value for exponentially multiplying diploid cells (3.0 Jm-2) being higher than that found for haploids (1.2 Jm-2). Irradiation of cultures reversibly blocked in the G1 phase of the cell cycle gave survival-curve coefficients indistinguishable between haploids and diploids. Post-irradiation exposure to visible light restored colony-forming capacity and removed chromatographically estimated pyrimidine dimers from DNA at the same rates. After fluences killing 90% of the cells, complete restoration of survival was obtained after 60-min exposure to 500 foot-candles, indicating that in this range lethality is entirely photoreversible and therefore attributable to pyrimidine dimers in DNA. Dimer removal required illumination following ultraviolet exposure, intact cells and physiological temperature, implying that the photoreversal involved DNA photolyase activity. Excision-repair capacity was slight, since no loss of dimers could be detected chromatographically during up to 48 h incubation in the dark and since autoradiographically detected "unscheduled DNA synthesis" was limited to a 2-fold increase saturated at 10 Jm-2. These properties make ICR 2A frog cells useful to explore how DNA-repair pathways influence mutant yield.