Antimutagenic effect of selenium on acridine orange and 7,12-dimethylbenz[alpha]anthracene in the Ames Salmonella/microsomal system.

The antimutagenic effects of selenium as sodium selenite were investigated using the Ames Salmonella/microsome mutagenicity test. The compounds examined were acridine orange and 7,12-dimethylbenz[alpha]anthracene. Selenium (22 ppm) reduced the number of histidine revertants caused by 20 microgram acridine orange and 20 microgram 7,12-dimethylbenz[alpha]anthracene by 52 and 74%, respectively. Increasing the quantity of selenium added to the plates further suppressed the mutagenicity of the test compounds. The antimutagenic effects of selenium cannot be explained by lethality of Salmonella typhimurium.