Evaluation of the bioluminescence assays as screens for genotoxic chemicals.

While present data suggest that the Mutatox assay is not effective for carcinogen screening, it does appear to detect many agents with diverse mechanisms of mutagenic activity with reasonable sensitivity as well as some known human teratogens. For general screening, more detailed studies need to be performed using coded agents with various mutagenic mechanisms as well as with toxicants of various classes including teratogens. With additional validation, the Mutatox assay, with its sensitivity to diverse chemical classes, may be valuable as a rapid, short-term, cost-effective assay.