Studies on the mechanism of mutagenicity and genotoxicity induced by dihydralazine.

Dihydralazine was found to be mutagenic towards S. typhimurium TA1537, TA97, TA1538 and TA98 and genotoxic towards E. coli PQ37. Using the nitro blue tetrazolium reduction method we have found that dihydralazine can generate active oxygen species. The possible role of active oxygen species in mutagenicity (Ames test) and genotoxicity (SOS Chromotest) of dihydralazine was studied by testing the influence of the different active oxygen species scavengers on these two processes. Of the active oxygen scavengers tested, only superoxide dismutase suppressed partially the mutagenic and genotoxic activity of dihydralazine. This result seems to indicate that superoxide anion play a role in these two biological events.