Further characterization of the genotoxicity of formaldehyde in vitro by the sister chromatid exchange test and co-cultivation experiments.

The induction of sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) was used to further characterize the genotoxic action of formaldehyde (FA) on cultured mammalian cells. FA induced SCE in V79 Chinese hamster cells and A549 human lung cells in a concentration-related manner. Addition of 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) for the differentiation of sister chromatids to visualize SCE 4 h after the FA treatment led to a clearly reduced induction of SCE in agreement with the repair kinetics of FA-induced DNA-protein cross-links. When A549 cells were treated with FA for 1 h and then co-cultivated with V79 cells in the presence of BrdUrd, a clear induction of SCE was measured in V79 cells. When the same experiment was performed including washing and change of medium after the FA treatment, no induction of SCE was measured in V79 cells. These results indicate that reactive FA remains in the cell culture medium for a longer time period despite the high reactivity of FA with macromolecules. However, FA that has entered a cell is not released and does not damage other cells. Possible implications for the mutagenicity of FA in vivo will be discussed.