Predicting rodent carcinogenicity using potency measures of the in vitro sister chromatid exchange and chromosome aberration assays

Abstract

In vitro sister chromatid exchange (SCE) and chromosome aberration (ABS) tests have been extensively used to identify potential rodent carcinogens. A number of measures of potency were developed to describe in vitro SCE and ABS test results: the dose needed to induce a unit increase over the control; the lowest effective dose; the slope of the ordinary linear regression; the maximum observed slope; and the maximum fold increase over background. The ability of these potency measures to predict the qualitative and quantitative carcinogenicity of chemicals was compared to the predictivity of the qualitative in vitro responses. The results of the analyses showed that the quantitative measures of the SCE or ABS responses only minimally increased the predictivity of carcinogenesis when compared to the predictivity using the qualitative responses.