Genotoxic evaluation of bupivacaine and levobupivacaine in the Drosophila wing spot test.

Bupivacaine and levobupivacaine are amino amide local anesthetics commonly used in medical practice. Although bupivacaine consists of a racemic mixture of S (-)-bupivacaine and R (+)-bupivacaine enantiomers, levobupivacaine is comprised of pure S (-)-bupivacaine. It has been known that levobupivacaine is preferable to bupivacaine since it may cause cardiovascular and nervous system toxicity. For determining genotoxicity of these anesthetics, we used the wing somatic mutation and recombination test in Drosophila melanogaster. Three-day-old trans-heterozygous larvae were treated with bupivacaine and levobupivacaine. Analysis of the standard crosses indicated that bupivacaine and levobupivacaine did not exhibit mutagenic or recombinogenic activity until toxic doses have been reached at the larval stage. When we examined bupivacaine and levobupivacaine in the HB cross, bupivacaine did not exhibit any genotoxicity at high concentrations (500 µg/mL), but levobupivacaine did exert genotoxicity at high concentrations (1000 µg/mL)-depending on the substantial recombinogenic effect.