Mutagenicity tests with styrene oxide in mammals.

The capability of styrene oxide to induce chromosome damage in vivo has been tested in the male mouse by examination of bone-marrow cells, by scoring micronuclei in polychromatic erythrocytes, by observation of meiotic chromosomes from treated males and by the dominant-lethality test. Furthermore, studies have been performed on short-term cultures of human lymphocytes in vitro. Whereas an increase in the yield of chromatid and chromosomal aberrations was observed after exposure in vitro, only negative results were obtained in the tests in vivo. One has, therefore, to conclude that styrene oxide is potentially capable of breaking mammalian chromosomes but that an exposure to an acute dose in vivo does not produce visible damage in somatic cells or in male germ cells.