IN-VITRO AND IN-VIVO GENOTOXICITY EVALUATION OF HORMONAL DRUGS V MESTRANOL

Genotoxicity of a widely used estrogen, Mestranol, was undertaken usin g in vitro, in vivo and host-mediated assay with bacteria as indicator organism. Analyses of chromosome aberrations and sister chromatid exc hanges (SCEs) in human lympocytes and chromosome aberrations, micronuc lei and sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) in bone-marrow cells of mice showed the drug to be capable of attacking the genetic material. Howe ver, both Ames Salmonella/S9 assay with and without S9 mix and host-me diated assay using same tester strains of Salmonella, did not show any significant increase/decrease in the His(+) revertants.