Genotoxicity of human mammary lipid.

We tested the proposition that human mammary lipid contains mutagenic/genotoxic agents that could cause DNA damage in adjacent epithelial cells. Lipid samples from breast tissue surgically removed from 40 women undergoing elective reduction mammoplasty were extracted by a solid-phase procedure. Mutagenicity was observed in Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA1538 in 16 of 40 (40%) extracts assayed with rat-liver S9, but not in its absence. No mutagenicity was seen in S. typhimurium TA100 or Escherichia coli WP2uvrA(pKM101). Bacterial mutagenicity correlated with micronucleus-forming activity in a metabolically competent mammalian cell line (MCL-5). This genotoxic activity merits further investigation in relation to the etiology of breast cancer.