Mutagenic activity of 2-amino-N6-hydroxyadenine in the mouse spot test.

The base analogue 2-amino-N6-hydroxyadenine (AHA) was mutagenic in the spot test in (T x HT)F1 mouse embryos. Females were injected with single doses of 20 or 40 mg AHA per kg body weight on the 9th day of pregnancy. To rank the mutagenic potency of different compounds, the frequencies of genetically relevant spots induced by 1 mg/kg body weight were calculated. The observed somatic mutation frequency for 1 mg/kg AHA was lower (1.95 x 10(-3)) spots of genetic relevance) than that of mitomycin C (16 x 10(-3)), ethylnitrosourea (6.8 x 10(-3)) and cyclophosphamide (6.4 x 10(-3)) and therefore AHA was not classified as a very potent mutagen in this test system. The doubling dose to induce genetically relevant spots was calculated to be 20 mg/kg b.w. Based on these data, AHA is suggested to be a candidate to induce recessive specific-locus mutations in germ cells of mice.