The in vitro study on genotoxic activity of adriamycin and bleomycin in cells of mice with different catalase and superoxide dismutase activity.

Genotoxic activity of adriamycin and bleomycin in embryo cells from mice differing in anti-oxidant enzymes activity was investigated. The catalase activity in cultured in vitro embryo cells of C3H mice was 2.3-fold and superoxide dismutase 2.5-fold higher than of C57BL/10 mice. For genotoxicity evaluation, the micronucleus test in vitro was used. The results obtained indicated that the frequency of micronucleated cells in untreated C3H cultures was higher than in C57BL/10 cell cultures. The increase in micronuclei formation after treatment with adriamycin and bleomycin was higher in C57BL/10 than in C3H cells as compared with micronuclei in untreated cultures. The higher frequency of micronucleated cells in treated versus untreated C57BL/10 than C3H cell cultures may be caused by lower activity of anti-oxidant enzymes in C57BL/10 cells. It may suggest that DNA damage caused by adriamycin and bleomycin resulted from action of active oxygen species.