Revisiting the bacterial mutagenicity assays: Report by a workgroup of the International Workshops on Genotoxicity Testing (IWGT).

The International Workshop on Genotoxicity Testing (IWGT) meets every four years to obtain consensus on unresolved issues associated with genotoxicity testing. At the 2017 IWGT meeting in Tokyo, four sub-groups addressed issues associated with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Test Guideline TG471, which describes the use of bacterial reverse-mutation tests. The strains sub-group analyzed test data from >10,000 chemicals, tested additional chemicals, and concluded that some strains listed in TG471 are unnecessary because they detected fewer mutagens than other strains that the guideline describes as equivalent. Thus, they concluded that a smaller panel of strains would suffice to detect most mutagens. The laboratory proficiency sub-group recommended (a) establishing strain cell banks, (b) developing bacterial growth protocols that optimize assay sensitivity, and (c) testing "proficiency compounds" to gain assay experience and establish historical positive and control databases. The sub-group on criteria for assay evaluation recommended that laboratories (a) track positive and negative control data; (b) develop acceptability criteria for positive and negative controls; (c) optimize dose-spacing and the number of analyzable doses when there is evidence of toxicity; (d) use a combination of three criteria to evaluate results: a dose-related increase in revertants, a clear increase in revertants in at least one dose relative to the concurrent negative control, and at least one dose that produced an increase in revertants above control limits established by the laboratory from historical negative controls; and (e) establish experimental designs to resolve unclear results. The in silico sub-group summarized in silico utility as a tool in genotoxicity assessment but made no specific recommendations for TG471. Thus, the workgroup identified issues that could be addressed if TG471 is revised. The companion papers (a) provide evidence-based approaches, (b) recommend priorities, and (c) give examples of clearly defined terms to support revision of TG471.

The results of five coded compounds: genistein, metaproterenol, rotenone, p-anisidine and resorcinol tested in the pH 6.7 Syrian hamster embryo cell morphological transformation assay.

The pH 6.7 Syrian hamster embryo (SHE) cell morphological transformation assay is a short-term in vitro test that has been used to predict rodent carcinogenicity. Previous reports have indicated that the SHE assay has an overall concordance of approximately 80% with the 2 year rodent bioassay. We selected five compounds, genistein, metaproterenol, rotenone, p-anisidine and resorcinol, that had extensive genotoxicity and carcinogenicity data and tested them in the standard 7 day exposure SHE assay. Somewhat surprisingly, the SHE assay misclassified the actual rodent carcinogenicity of four out of the five test compounds. It is difficult to explain these findings as the actual mechanisms of SHE cell morphological transformation are currently unknown. However, it is obvious that in these studies there was no simple correlation between in vitro genotoxicity, morphological transformation in SHE cells and rodent carcinogenicity. Clearly, further research is required to accurately assess the role of the SHE assay in the carcinogenic risk assessment of new chemical entities.