Research Article

Increased mutant frequency by carbon black, but not quartz, in the lacZ and cII transgenes of muta™mouse lung epithelial cells

  1. Nicklas Raun Jacobsen1,
  2. Anne Thoustrup Saber1,
  3. Paul White2,
  4. Peter Møller3,
  5. Giulio Pojana4,
  6. Ulla Vogel1,
  7. Steffen Loft3,
  8. John Gingerich2,
  9. Lynda Soper2,
  10. George R. Douglas2,
  11. Håkan Wallin1,*

Article first published online: 21 JUN 2007

DOI: 10.1002/em.20300

Issue

Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis

Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis

Volume 48, Issue 6, pages 451–461, July 2007

Additional Information

How to Cite

Jacobsen, N. R., Saber, A. T., White, P., Møller, P., Pojana, G., Vogel, U., Loft, S., Gingerich, J., Soper, L., Douglas, G. R. and Wallin, H. (2007), Increased mutant frequency by carbon black, but not quartz, in the lacZ and cII transgenes of muta™mouse lung epithelial cells. Environ. Mol. Mutagen., 48: 451–461. doi: 10.1002/em.20300

Author Information

  1. 1

    National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Lersø Parkallé 105, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark

  2. 2

    Mutagenesis Section, Safe Environments Program, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, Canada

  3. 3

    Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5A, 1014 Copenhagen K, Denmark

  4. 4

    Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Venice, 2137 Calle Larga S. Marta, Venice, Italy

*National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Lersø Parkallé 105, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 11 JUL 2007
  2. Article first published online: 21 JUN 2007
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 19 FEB 2007
  4. Manuscript Revised: 20 DEC 2006
  5. Manuscript Received: 6 OCT 2006

Funded by

  • Danish Research Council, Air Pollution in a Lifetime Health Perspective (Airpolife). Grant Number: 2052-03-0016
  • European Union, Particle Risk. Grant Number: FP6-012912
  • NEST

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Keywords:

  • Comet assay;
  • FE1 MML;
  • in vitro;
  • mutants;
  • oxidative damage

Abstract

Carbon black and quartz are relatively inert solid particulate materials that are carcinogenic in laboratory animals. Quartz is a human carcinogen, whereas data on carbon black are contradictory, and there are few data on mammalian mutagenesis. We determined the mutant frequency following eight repeated 72-hr incubations with 75 μg/ml carbon black (Printex 90) or 100 μg/ml quartz (SRM1878a) particles in the FE1 Muta™Mouse lung epithelial cell line. For carbon black exposed cells, the mutant frequency was 1.40-fold (95% CI: 1.22–1.58) for cII and 1.23-fold (95% CI: 1.10–1.37) for lacZ compared with identically passaged untreated cells. Quartz did not significantly affect the mutant frequency. Carbon black also induced DNA strand breaks (P = 0.02) and oxidized purines (P = 0.008), as measured by the Comet assay. Quartz induced marginally more oxidized purines, but no change in strand breaks. We detected five (phenanthrene, flouranthene, pyrene, benzo[a]anthracene, and chrysene) of the 16 EPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in an extract of carbon black. The detected PAHs are only weakly mutagenic compared with benzo[a]pyrene, and were present in very low amounts. In conclusion, carbon black was weakly mutagenic in vitro at the cII and lacZ loci. It also induced DNA strand breaks and oxidized DNA bases. More studies are essential for understanding the biological significance of these findings, and clearly documenting DNA sequence changes. The results do not necessarily imply that other carbonaceous nano materials are genotoxic. Environ. Mol. Mutagen., 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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