Flow cytometric measurement of nuclear DNA content variations as a potential in vivo mutagenicity test.

Mutagen-induced variations of the cellular DNA content have been studied in mouse bone marrow cells in vivo using high resolution flow cytometric techniques. During the first days after a single injection of the chemical mutagen cyclophosphamide an increased coefficient of variation in the G1 peak of the flow histograms was observed. The magnitude and duration of this effect were dose-dependent. The reproducibility of the measurements was high, indicating that individual variability between animals and instrumental dispersion is small. The results demonstrate that on the basis of the flow cytometric measurement of cellular DNA content, a short-term in vivo test for mutagenicity can be established which is much faster than conventional cytogenetic methods.