[A sensitive, simple and economical bioassay for detecting mutagenicity in human urine by determination of SCE frequency in cultured peripheral lymphocytes].

A bioassay was established for detecting mutagenicity in human urine by determination of SCE frequency in cultured human peripheral lymphocytes. The results showed that the SCE frequencies induced by the urine of smokers were significantly higher than those of nonsmokers (P less than 0.01), while SCE frequencies induced by the urine of 20 cancer patients after chemotherapy (19.44/cell) were much higher than those before treatment (9.92/cell, P less than 0.001). Also, higher SCE frequencies were found in all cancer cases after chemotherapy. The authors suggest that this is a more sensitive, reliable, simple, economical and practical assay for detecting mutagenicity of human urine.