Mutagenic effect of epichlorohydrin. I. Testing on human lymphocytes in vitro in comparison with TEPA.

The mutagenic effect of the monofunctional alkylating agent epichlorohydrin was tested on human lymphocytes in vitro and compared with the mutagenic effect of the polyfunctional alkylating agent TEPA. The same descending concentrations were used for both mutagens: 10(-4), 10(-5), 10(-6), 10(-7), 10(-8), 10(-9), 10(-10) and 10(-11) M. Similar types of chromosomal aberration were found, but the effect of ECHH was 4-5 times lower than that of TEPA. ECHH was found to be a mild mutagen. Different timing of mutagen application was used in the course of 56 h of cultivation of lymphocytes: 1 h before cultivation, one hour between the 24th and 25th h of cultivation and 24 h before the end of cultivation. From the results presented we conclude that the application of the chemical for the last 24 h of human lymphocyte cultivation should be recommended for routine mutagenicity testing.