COMPARISON OF THE ANEUGENIC ACTIVITY OF DIAZEPAM IN MOUSE OOCYTES ANDOTHER MAMMALIAN-CELLS

Previous studies have reported that diazepam (DZ) is capable of induci ng mitotic-meiotic arrest and increasing the frequency of aneuploidy i n mammalian cells both in vitro and in vivo. We now report that DZ fai led to induce either meiotic arrest or aneuploidy in mouse oocytes. In fact, doses of 0, 50, 100, or 150 mg/kg DZ administered at the same t ime as human chorionic gonadotropin did not induce the ovulation of me taphase I oocytes or of hyperploid metaphase II oocytes. A reduction i n the number of ovulated oocytes was observed in the treated groups re lative to controls, but this reduction was only significant (p < 0.01) at the highest dose. These findings indicate that different results a re found among the assays used for detecting chemically induced aneupl oidy. Determining the factors responsible for these differences is an important area for future research.