Further flow cytometric studies of the effects of triethylenemelamine on somatic and testicular tissues of the rat.

Exposure to the mutagen triethylenemelamine on rat bone marrow, blood, and testis was studied using flow cytometry of DAPI-stained nuclei. Increased coefficients of variation (CVs) of the G1 peaks were observed in bone marrow and blood after both 1 d and 5 d exposures. After 5 d exposure and 7 d recovery both tissues had recovered, in some cases to significantly lower CVs. Increased CVs of the 1C peak of testis were observed only after 5 d exposure to the high dose with no subsequently observed recovery. Bone marrow cells also were stained with Hoechst 33258 and Propidium Iodide. No differences among dyes were observed indicating that increased CVs likely are due to DNA damage resulting from interactions with the mutagen rather than differences in how the dyes bind to DNA relative to mutagen binding. This study demonstrates that differences occur among tissues in how quickly they respond and recover from mutagen exposure. Increased CVs, cell cycle alterations, and decreased CVs after recovery are all potentially useful biomarkers of effect for laboratory and field studies in environmental toxicology.