A heavy-ion beam has been recognized as an effective mutagen for plant breeding and applied to the many kinds of crops including rice. In contrast with X-ray or γ-ray, the heavy-ion beam is characterized by a high linear energy transfer (LET). LET is an important factor affecting several aspects of the irradiation effect, e.g. cell survival and mutation frequency, making the heavy-ion beam an e...

Risk estimates for radiation-induced cancer in humans are based on epidemiological data largely drawn from the Japanese atomic bomb survivor studies, which received an acute high dose rate (HDR) ionising radiation. Limited knowledge exists about the effects of chronic low dose rate (LDR) exposure, particularly with respect to the application of the dose and dose rate effectiveness factor. As pa...

The metabolism of the mutagen and carcinogen, 5-nitroacenaphthene, by the 9000 x g supernatant from the livers of Aroclor-pretreated rats was studied. The major primary metabolites were 1-hydroxy-5-nitroacenaphthene and 2-hydroxy-5-nitroacenaphthene. These metabolites were oxidized to 1-oxo-5-nitroacenaphthene and 2-oxo-5-nitroacenaphthene, hydroxylated to cis-1,2-dihydroxy-5-nitroacenaphthene ...

The rate of spontaneous generation and the frequency of carcinogen-induced anchorage-independent variants of preneoplastic rat tracheal epithelial (RTE) cells in culture were quantitated. Anchorage-independent variants of different RTE cell lines arose spontaneously by a stochastic process at rates of 0.5 X 10(-4) to 5.4 X 10(-4) variants/cell/generation, as determined by fluctuation analyses. ...

Therapy-induced cancers are a severe complication of genotoxic therapies. We used heterozygous Nf1 mutant mice as a sensitized genetic background to investigate tumor induction by radiation (RAD) and cyclophosphamide (CY). Mutagen-exposed Nf1(+/-) mice developed secondary cancers that are common in humans, including myeloid malignancies, sarcomas, and breast cancers. RAD cooperated strongly wit...

The reactive metobolite responsible for benzene hematotoxicity and carcinogenicity is unknown. It can be hypothesized that the ultimate carcinogen derived from benzene metabolism might also act as a mutagen. This laboratory has recently developed a new assay that can detect mutagens of all types, using a single strain of bacteria, E. coli WP2s (lambda), as a target. Different genetic end points...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the antigenotoxic properties of the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus IMC501; DNA damage was induced by one representative food mutagen, 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP). Mice were treated orally with suspensions of lactobacilli for 10 days before administration of food mutagen. During the treatment, the abundance of lactobac...

Mice fed a diet containing 0.3 or 0.03% triethanolamine developed malignant tumors. Females showed a high incidence of tumors in lymphoid tissues, while this type was absent in males. Tumors in other tissues were produced at a considerable rate in both sexes, but no hepatoma was found. Triethanolamine was not mutagenic to Bacillus subtilis by itself, but it became mutagenic after reacting with ...