Toxicity studies of butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene. I. Genetic and cellular effects.

The cellular effects of the antioxidants butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene were studied in a battery of in vitro tests. No evidence of genotoxicity was obtained for either compound in the hepatocyte primary culture/DNA repair test, the Salmonella/microsome mutagenesis test, the adult rat liver epithelial cell/hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase test, or for butylated hydroxyanisole in the Chinese hamster ovary cell/sister chromatid exchange test. Both compounds inhibited intercellular molecular exchange between cultured liver cells, an effect that has been observed for many agents with neoplasm-promoting activity.