Analysis of DNA strand breaks induced in rodent liver in vivo, hepatocytes in primary culture, and a human cell line by chlorinated acetic acids and chlorinated acetaldehydes

An alkaline unwinding assay was used to quantitate the induction of DNA strand breaks (DNA SB) in the livers of rats and mice treated in vivo, in rodent hepatocytes in primary culture, and in CCRF‐CEM cells, a human lymphoblastic leukemia cell line, following treatment with tri‐ (TCA), di‐ (DCA), and mono‐ (MCA) chloroacetic acid and their corresponding aldehydes, tri‐ (chloral hydrate, CH), di‐ (DCAA) and mono‐ (CAA) chloroacetaldehyde. None of the chloroacetic acids induced DNA SB in the livers of rats at 4 hr following a single administration of 1–10 mmole/kg. TCA (10 mmole/kg) and DCA (5 and 10 mmole/kg) did produce a small amount of strand breakage in mice (7% at 4 hr) but not at 1 hr. N‐nitrosodiethylamine (DENA), an established alkylating agent and a rodent hepatocarcinogen, produced DNA SB in the livers of both species. TCA, DCA, and MCA also failed to induce DNA strand breaks in splenocytes and epithelial cells derived from the stomach and duodenum of mice treated in vivo. None of the three chloroacetaldehydes induced DNA SB in either mouse or rat liver. The continuous exposure of mice to 5 g/L DCA in the drinking water for 7 and 14 days did not induce appreciable hepatic DNA SB (< 10% at 14 days), although peroxisome proliferation, as evidenced by an increased cyanide‐insensitive palmitoyl CoA oxi‐dase (PCO) activity, was stimulated to 490% (7 days) and 652% (14 days) of control. Under this protocol, DENA (0.1 g/L) produced DNA damage after both 7 days (73% of control) and 14 days (57% of control). Similarly, long‐term exposure of rats (30 weeks) to 2 g/L DCA in the drinking water, a level that increased PCO activity to 364% of the control value, exhibited no DNA damage. Both the chloroacetic acids and the chloroacetaldehydes were ineffective in inducing DNA SB in cultured rat and mouse hepatocytes at concentrations below those that yielded cytotoxicity. The chloroacetic acids were also ineffective in the CCRF‐CEM cells. However, two of the chloroaldehydes, DCAA and CAA, did induce DNA SB in the CCRF‐CEM cells at concentrations that did not decrease the cell viability after 2 hr of treatment. Prior incubation of DCAA and CAA with a rat S9 liver homogenate eliminated much of the DNA damaging activity. These studies provide further evidence that the chloroacetic acids lack genotoxic activity not only in rodent liver, a tissue in that they induce tumors, but in a variety of other roden tissues and cultured cell types. Two of the chloroacetaldehydes,