Sensitivities of peripheral lymphocytes from healthy humans to induction of sister chromatid exchanges by chemicals.

The spontaneous sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) and SCEs induced by 50 microM methyl methanesulfonate, 1 microM 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide, and 5 microM 3-amino-1-methyl-5H-pyrido[4,3-b]indole were examined in phytohemagglutinin-activated peripheral lymphocytes from 53 healthy adult donors. The means of the mean spontaneous SCEs and SCEs induced by methyl methanesulfonate, 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide, and 3-amino-1-methyl-5H-pyrido[4,3-b]indole in cells of these donors had coefficients of variability of 12, 14, 24, and 28%, respectively. Thus, it was possible to estimate the SCE-inducing activities of chemicals in peripheral lymphocytes from a population of healthy humans under the defined experimental conditions. These facts provide one of the useful parameters for evaluating the genotoxicities of chemicals to human beings, a genetically heterogeneous species. Cells from two of the donors were considerably more sensitive to particular chemicals than were those from other donors, consistently giving higher numbers of induced SCEs in two repeat examinations.