OECD GUIDELINE FOR THE TESTING OF CHEMICALS In Vitro Mammalian Chromosome Aberration Test

1. The purpose of the in vitro chromosome aberration test is to identify agents that cause structural chromosome aberrations in cultured mammalian cells (1)(2)(3). Structural aberrations may be of two types, chromosome or chromatid. With the majority of chemical mutagens, induced aberrations are of the chromatid type, but chromosome-type aberrations also occur. An increase in polyploidy may indicate that a chemical has the potential to induce numerical aberrations. However, this guideline is not designed to measure numerical aberrations and is not routinely used for that purpose. Chromosome mutations and related events are the cause of many human genetic diseases and there is substantial evidence that chromosome mutations and related events causing alterations in oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes of somatic cells are involved in cancer induction in humans and experimental animals.