Mutagenicity assay in Salmonella and in vivo sister chromatid exchange in bone marrow cells of mice for four pyrazolone derivatives

Phenylbutazone (PB), oxyphenbutazone (OPB), antipyrine (AP) and dipyrone (D P) are four important pyrazolone derivatives mainly used as anti-inflammato ry, antipyretic and analgesic drugs. At present these are the most widely u sed pyrazolone derivatives throughout the world. The widespread use of thes e drugs are of great concern for human health problems. In the present stud y these four drugs were tested in mutagenicity assays in Salmonella strains TA97a, TA98, TA100 and TA102 using a plate incorporation assay both with a nd without S-9 mix and for in vivo sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) in bone marrow cells of mice. The first three drugs were negative in all the teste r strains but dipyrone showed a weak mutagenic activity at higher concentra tions in all four strains both with and without metabolic activation. In th e in vivo SCE assay in male mice, all four drugs showed a statistically sig nificant increase in SCE in bone marrow cells when compared with control. ( C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.