Metal mutagenesis in transgenic Chinese hamster cell lines.

Metals are toxic agents for which genotoxic effects are often difficult to demonstrate. To study metal mutagenesis, we have used two stable hprt/gpt+ transgenic cell lines that were derived from Chinese hamster V79 cells. Both the G12 and G10 cell lines are known to be very sensitive to clastogens such as X-rays and bleomycin, with the mutagenic response of the integrated xanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (gpt) gene in G10 usually exceeding that of the same gene in the transgenic G12 cells. In studies with carcinogenic insoluble nickel compounds, a high level of mutagenesis was found at the gpt locus of G12 cells but not at the endogenous hypoxanthine phosphoribosyl transferase (hprt) locus of V79 cells. We have since demonstrated the similar recovery of a high frequency of viable G12 mutants with other insoluble nickel salts including nickel oxides (black and green). The relative mutant yield for the insoluble nickel compounds (G12 > G10) is the opposite of that obtained with nonmetal clastogens (G10 > G12). In the G12 cells, nickel mutagenesis may be related to the integration of the gpt sequence into a heterochromatic region of the genome. For some of the insoluble nickel compounds, significant inhibition of both cytotoxicity and mutant yield resulted when the G12 cells were pretreated with vitamin E. In comparison with the nickel studies, the mutagenic responses to chromium compounds in these cell lines were not as dramatic. Mutagenesis of the gpt target could not be demonstrated with other metals such as mercury or vanadium.