Stopper H, Müller S O
Department of Toxicology, University of Würzburg, 97078 Würzburg, Germany.
Toxicol In Vitro. 1997 Oct;11(5):661-7. doi: 10.1016/s0887-2333(97)00084-2.
The in vitro micronucleus assay has now been applied in many laboratories. This endpoint is useful in biomonitoring or ecotoxicology, as a sensitivity measure of human cells in cancer treatment and also to replace or supplement other in vitro genotoxicity assays. Learning more about the mechanisms of micronucleus formation allows conclusions about its biological significance. It has been demonstrated that disturbance of the mitotic apparatus (spindle, kinetochores) as well as impaired function of topoisomerase II can be involved in micronucleus formation. In addition, the roles of changes in DNA-conformation that are induced by alterations in the status of cytosine-methylation and of the cellular DNA repair capacity have been shown. The fate of micronucleus-containing cells is not known: the cells may theoretically be cytostatic and micronucleus-formation may therefore be a way of the organism to eliminate genetic damage or the cells may survive the loss of that chromosomal material and develop into transformed cells. Published data and ideas of selected areas within this field are reviewed.
体外微核试验现已在许多实验室得到应用。该终点指标在生物监测或生态毒理学中很有用，可作为癌症治疗中人类细胞敏感性的一种度量，还可替代或补充其他体外遗传毒性试验。深入了解微核形成的机制有助于得出其生物学意义的结论。已经证明，有丝分裂装置（纺锤体、动粒）的紊乱以及拓扑异构酶II功能受损可能与微核形成有关。此外，还表明了由胞嘧啶甲基化状态改变和细胞DNA修复能力改变所诱导的DNA构象变化的作用。含微核细胞的命运尚不清楚：从理论上讲，这些细胞可能是细胞静止的，因此微核形成可能是生物体消除遗传损伤的一种方式，或者这些细胞可能在失去该染色体物质后存活下来并发展为转化细胞。本文对该领域内选定区域的已发表数据和观点进行了综述。
