High rate of endoreduplications and chromosomal aberrations in hamster cells treated with sodium nitrite in vitro.

As shown by results in this paper, NaNO2 induced endoreduplications and chromosomal aberrations as well as malignant transformation, in hamster cells in vitro, although the carcinogenic action of NaNO2 has not been reported in animals. The mode of action of NaNO2 in mammalian cells requires further investigation.