The effects of acrylamide on mouse germ-line and somatic cell chromosomes.

The industrial chemical acrylamide is suspected to induce potentially heritable genetic damage. While several studies in rodents have indicated that this substance can damage spermiogenic cells, resulting in dominant lethals and heritable translocations, cytogenetic assessments of premeiotic and meiotic cells after exposure have produced equivocal results. In the present study, various cytogenetic endpoints in both somatic and germ-line cells from acrylamide-treated mice were evaluated. Sister chromatid exchanges and micronuclei, but not chromosome aberrations, were induced in spleen cells; synaptonemal complex irregularities (asynapsis), but not chromosome aberrations, were induced in germ cells.