title: A study of the mutagenicity of anesthetics and their metabolites.
abstract: The commonly used volatile anesthetics, several of their metabolites, and drugs frequently employed by the anesthesiologist were screened for mutagenicity in the Salmonella/rat-liver microsomal assay system developed by Dr. B. Ames and his colleagues. Chloral hydrate, both a sedative and metabolite of trichloroethylene, was found to be weakly mutagenic. Other compounds testing including halothane, isoflurane, methoxyflurane, diazepam and chlordiazepoxide were not mutagenic. Non-volatile compounds were tested for their ability to inhibit growth of bacterial strains with decreased capacity to repair damaged DNA. None of the compounds tested inhibited the growth of DNA-repair-deficient strains relative to a strain with normal DNA-repair. Halothane and trilene were tested for direct interaction with DNA; under the experimental conditions employed, no direct interaction of these compounds and DNA could be detected.
mesh_terms: D000777:Anesthetics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D002697:Chloral Hydrate / Q000494:pharmacology; D002707:Chlordiazepoxide / Q000494:pharmacology; D004260:DNA Repair / Q000187:drug effects; D003975:Diazepam / Q000494:pharmacology; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D006221:Halothane / Q000494:pharmacology; D007530:Isoflurane / Q000494:pharmacology; D008733:Methoxyflurane / Q000494:pharmacology; D008862:Microsomes, Liver / Q000378:metabolism; D009153:Mutagens; D009154:Mutation; D051381:Rats; D012486:Salmonella typhimurium / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000777:Anesthetics; D009153:Mutagens; D008733:Methoxyflurane; D002697:Chloral Hydrate; D002707:Chlordiazepoxide; D007530:Isoflurane; D003975:Diazepam; D006221:Halothane