title: Environmental monitoring for genotoxicity: in vivo sister chromatid exchange in the house mouse (Mus musculus).
abstract: Sister chromatid exchange (SCE) values were determined in bone marrow cells isolated from mouse (Mus musculus) femurs after injections of 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) and 5-fluorodeoxyuridine (FrdU). Male mice of C3H/J, C57BL/6J, and DBA/2 strains maintained in the laboratory gave mean SCE values of 3.42 +/- 0.07, 3.62 +/- 0.08, and 3.97 +/- 0.13, respectively. Males obtained from natural populations of southwestern Ontario had a higher mean SCE value (6.02 +/- 0.16), as did inbred males maintained in outdoor enclosures for at least 3 weeks (5.07 +/- 0.22). Wild mice housed in the laboratory for 9 months or longer had SCE values similar to laboratory bred mice (3.46 +/- 0.05). The SCE values in wild-caught mice were inversely proportional (r = -0.49) to the distance between the sites where these animals were collected and the nearest major industrial center. Based on these results, SCE analysis in mice is proposed as a possible first-line monitoring procedure for the detection of general changes in environmental genotoxicity.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000235:genetics; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains / Q000235:genetics; D009152:Mutagenicity Tests / Q000379:methods*; D012854:Sister Chromatid Exchange